Naruto of the Acid Rain
by Tomaxor
Summary: Naruto learns early on that fear has great power, but it is not without its cost. Insanity threatens to break his mind. Will he fight it, embrace it, or maybe just cause some chaos along the way. Darker/Smarter/Crazier Naruto, Poison/Explosive/Genjustu using Naruto. M-rated for language, disturbing images, and gore. ON HAITUS FOR NOW, SORRY :(
1. Chapter 1

**Greetings fellow FanFiction readers! My name is Tomaxor and I will be your writer! And yes, this is my first time EVER writing fiction of any kind (those stupid little stories we wrote in high school don't count)! So if this first chapter sucks, I'm sorry! Review for me and tell me what I did wrong, and I will try to make it better! If this chapter turns out to be awesome-sauce, then review and tell me what I did right, and I will make it even more better...er! Flaming though... please don't flame. As it says in my profile, I am a student. Which means that though I'm profusely sorry, updates will probably be erratic at best. I will try my hardest to update when I can, but I never can tell with these classes...**

**Important Note: New and Improved! I've added some more juicy story bits and cleaned up other parts of the story.**

**Thank you for your patience and for the reviews!**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto. I also don't own Stalker. Or really anything besides my car and a few school books. Any similarities between this story and other stories or real life events is purely coincidental.

**Enjoy!**

OOOOO

Yasui Ki had a pretty good life.

She was a 19 year old kunoichi. She had been a chuunin for 3 years, and was now at the time in her life where she could decide whether she wanted to move on to jounin, or to stay a chuunin. She had two loving parents. Her father was a carpenter and her mother was an herbalist. Yasui was engaged to shinobi, by the name of Hiko Shikon, the son of the counselor Kuroki Shikon. She and her fiancé lived together in a normal two person apartment, and were going to be married in 8 months.

Overall, a pretty good little life.

And it is about to be shattered.

OOOOO

BOOM!

"What the hell?!" Shouted a newly awoken Yasui. Hiko got out of their bed and ran over to the window in their apartment, followed closely by his fiancé. They both got a glimpse of something that terrified them to their very souls.

The Kyuubi no Kistune was currently just outside Konoha's walls, and it was in the process of bashing them down.

Both ninjas paled. "Oh shit! We've got to go help get the civilians to the bunkers!" exclaimed Hiko.

Dressing quickly into their ninja gear, they ran out of their apartment, and towards a residential district that was closer to where the Kyuubi was. After running across rooftops for a good 2 minutes, they reached their first destination, Hiko's father's house.

"Father!" Hiko barged into the home. "Father, we have to get you out of here!"

"Okay, let me get some things" came Kuroki's voice from down the hall.

Yasui was starting to panic. 'My parents house is closer to the Kyuubi! We have to hurry!' "Forget your things! Get out here!" she shouted.

"Alright! I'm coming!" All three left the house and saw a stream of people running down the street. On the road, there were a few genin directing the flow.

"Listen to those genin father, they will take you to the bunkers. We have to go help get others out." After Mr. Shikon left with the others, the two chuunin took off towards the Ki household.

From a distance, the block that Yasui knew her parents' house was on, looked to be on fire. And it sounded like there were some people trapped inside their homes, screaming their lungs out for help. What was worse, the Ki household appeared to be completely engulfed in flames.

"NO!" screamed Yasui.

Hiko went through some hand seals and yelled. "**Water Release: Exploding Wave**!" Sadly, neither ninja had been very proficient in water release, and the resulting wave was not enough to even put out the flames that were around the front door.

BOOM!

Another earthquake shook the area, and this one was so violent that both Hiko and Yasui were hard pressed to not fall flat on their backs.

CRA-A-ACK!

The home decided that it could no longer stay standing, and collapsed onto itself, resulting in a massive dust cloud being raised. Soon after, an explosion rocked the area as something went off inside the rubble, blowing pieces into the air.

Yasui could not comprehend life without her two loving parents. Tears began to cascade down her face as she fell to her knees.

"Yasui! I'm sorry... we were to late, but we have to go help others! We need to leave!" Dragging his sobbing fiancé along, he approached the next house, and after making sure that Yasui could understand what they were doing, ran inside to find survivors.

Over the next 30 minutes, they went around to different houses and found people that were trapped and took them out of their homes and sent them on the way towards the shelters.

Their next stop was the final house in the area. The couple was tired and dirty, and had a few burns and scrapes on their bodies, but knew that they had to keep helping. As they were taking the last person out of the building another earth shattering quake shook the area.

Part of the roof started to shift and bend, leaning towards the retreating civilians and shinobi.

"Move!" Hiko shouted as he shoved a young boy out of the way of the falling debris.

CRASH!

What Yasui saw when the dust cleared, completely broke her.

Hiko's body had been impaled by a falling beam. His chest was crushed and had a few ribs sticking out of the flesh. Blood was pooling around his body, and was staining the ground red. The worst part was that his neck had been partially severed by a falling tile and there was only a small piece of flesh connecting his now limp body to his bloodied head.

OOOOO

It was a few days after the sealing of the Kyuubi, and Sarutobi had just called a council meeting, to go over the events, the reconstruction, and to talk about the life of a certain whiskered newborn.

Kurokui could not believe what he was hearing. "Hokage-sama, listen to me." he demanded. "Do you see these stains on my robes? Do you want to know how I got these stains? Before I came here, my so-o-on's fiancé came over to my house, and spent the last two hours crying into my chest! Her parents home collapsed on them, because of the Kyuubi! My son...my little boy...DIED because of that monstrosity!"

"My sister lost both of her little daughters when one of that _thing's_ tails came crashing down!" shouted another councilor.

"As I was saying, we have lost so much because of that demon, and now that we have it in the form of a helpless baby, you will not kill it?!"

"Councilors, I know that we all have lost a lot because of the attack, but you have to understand, this is NOT the Kyuubi! This _baby_ is a hero! Without him, acting as a cage holding the demon back, we wouldn't be alive to argue in this damnable room!"

"Hokage-sama please allow me to have the child. I would be able to turn this great tragedy into a boon for our village. With my training he will become a great weapon to be used against Konoha's enemies." came the voice of the ever serious Danzo.

Sarutobi turned a steel gaze toward the bandaged man. "That is not going to happen Danzo, I want him to live a normal life, one where he has emotions." Danzo simply blinked his one visible eye, then sighed.

The arguing went on into the night, with nobody backing down, until the Hokage finally used his authority to pass a law where anyone, besides himself or Naruto, that mentioned the sealing of the Kyuubi or Naruto's status as a jinchuuriki would be executed.

OOOOO

Over the years, the Hokage attempted to befriend the little blond boy, but each time he came over to the orphanage or took Naruto out for ramen, the next day he would have the civilian council telling him he could not give the 'little monster' special treatment, and attempting to use more and more loop-holes and small print to subvert his authority on the subject.

The Hokage grimaced as a shredded another paper from a council member. 'I'm sorry my boy, looks like I won't be able to take you out to ramen much anymore, these damn council members are getting smarter. Their tactics are getting subtler. I'll do what I can from behind the scenes, but anything public is off-limits now.'

OOOOO

A small 5 year old, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, whiskered-marked boy was currently wandering around the poorer districts of Konoha. It had been a full year since he was thrown out of the orphanage, and he had been living on the street ever since. Stealing what he had to, he lived a difficult life of a street urchin. Though, one good thing (he didn't realize it at the time) was that his skills in stealth and evasion were becoming increasingly good.

As he walked along, people would glare at him, sneer at him, and sometimes they would throw rotten food and rocks at his head. 'I don't get it, what did I do wrong?' He mentally sobbed.

He had on a tattered grey shirt and small blue shorts with many a hole covering the fabric.

Soon, Naruto began to notice the buildings were more, colorful, than they were yesterday. 'I wonder what all the colors are for...'

His stomach decided it was at that moment that it couldn't take it anymore and growled.

Frowning, he looked around at the shops and restaurants. 'Man, I'm really hungry.'

Then, he picked up a heavenly smell wafting his way. Looking over to his left, he noticed a small cart with what looked like pastries sitting on top in little stacks. They looked fresh, if the steam rolling off them was any indication, and though not exactly healthy, were just what his body could use at that moment. Now normally, Naruto would have been able to assess the situation a little better and come up with a plan of action to steal the pastry, but not eating for days overrode his logical thinking. Drooling slightly, he made his way over to the cart and turned his head left and right to see if anyone was looking. Seeing no-one (or so he thought) he quickly grabbed one and ran off.

"Hey! That little monster stole a pastry!" Shouted the angry cart owner as he gave chase.

While Naruto ran, he turned around to see how close the cart owner was to catching up, and he was happy to observe that the old man was too slow. It was at that moment that he ran head first into one Yasui Ki. She looked startled for a moment, then she looked down and realized who ran into her. She glared daggers at the boy, and attempted to grab him, which he dodged around and then he took off running again.

Throwing a kunai at the jinchuuriki she went after him. "Come back here you cretin!"

'Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!' Mind rapidly churning through that mantra, he rounded another corner and dashed off.

One would think that a chuunin would be able to easily catch and subdue a small 5 year old boy, but Yasui had actually been discharged 4 years ago, so her skills were pretty rusty. Ever since the loss of her fiancé and parents, it was deemed that she was not stable enough to be a ninja.

As Naruto ran, he went towards what looked like a large metal chain link gate.

Now normally this gate would be closed, but at that moment, a thirteen year-old Anko Mitarashi was opening the gate to head home, which happened to be inside the Forest of Death. She didn't always live in the forest, but ever since Orochimaru betrayed Konoha, she decided it was the safest place in Konoha for herself (ironic really, considering the forest's reputation). While living in the forest, she didn't have to deal with villagers vandalizing her home.

Quickly passing the stunned kunoichi, Naruto ran into the huge forest.

'What the hell?' Wondered Anko.

"Good!" Yasui screamed. "Go in there and die you monster!" and she slowly turned around while trying to melt the ground with her gaze.

Now Anko was furious. 'How dare she chase a kid into this forest! What the hell is wrong with this city?' She hurriedly went through the chain gate and then locked it on the other side, and ran after the blonde-haired child.

OOOOO

Cold and tired, that was what Naruto was feeling at that moment. His hunger forgotten, he was still running for his life, hoping to put as much distance between him and the angry woman that he believed was still behind him. Heart beating in his ears, he did not here the shouts of Anko behind him.

"Gaki! Gaki wait! I'm not going to hurt you!" Anko quickly tried to grab onto his shoulder, which resulted in Naruto losing his concentration, and tripping on a root. Crashing head first into the ground, Naruto's world faded to black.

"Well that could have gone better I suppose. Guess I'll take him home and wait for him to wake up..." Grabbing the unconscious lad and throwing him over her shoulder, she took off towards her house.

OOOOO

Drip

Drip

Drip

"Ugh..." Naruto slowly rose to his feet and looked around. "Well, they threw me into a sewer, that's nice..."

**"Come here boy." **rumbled a deep voice off in the distance.

"W-w-wha-a-at? W-who-o's there?" Looking around and seeing no-one Naruto timidly began to search for the source of the mysterious voice.

Standing in knee high water, he took note of the odd pipes lining the concrete walls. There were sets of pipes that seemed to be glowing blue, and others a soft tinge of red. Deciding to follow the peculiar looking pipes he sloshed through the water towards his unknown destination.

A few minutes later he saw what looked like massive cage bars looming off at the end of the hallway. Naruto slowly approached the bars, looked inside and was greeted by a pair of giant red eyes with black slit-pupils. They loomed down on the now shaking boy.

**"Ah yes, my jailor has finally come to greet me." **The giant eyes narrowed and lowered down closer to ground level. **"And he's just a little pipsqueak. Shame really, not much to do with you just yet, guess I'll just rest some more then..."**

"Who-o a-are you?"

It was then that the massive beast was illuminated, showing a ten story tall orange fox with nine massive tails swaying behind it. **"Foolish boy! I am the Kyuubi no Kistune! The greatest of the tailed beasts! A monster so great that merely speaking my name invokes fear and despair in the hearts of you puny mortals!" **It was then a massive sigh was released from it's mouth. **"And you are my jailor, my host..."**

You could almost hear the gears in Naruto's mind beginning to turn (in fact, if you look to your left, you really do see some turning gears... odd really, I wonder what those are for...)

"You mean that you're not really dead?"

**"Do I look DEAD to you!?"**

"Um, no-o..." At that the beast scoffed. "So you're the reason that I'm hated? The looks and glares, that crazy lady that chased me, they are all trying to hurt you?"

**"In a way, yes. They believe that you are not the cage, but the beast within. Silly really, I would not stand for those puny flesh-bags glaring, and throwing things at me as if superior. I would make them cower and beg before me." **Showing big pointed teeth, the Kyuubi grinned.

Naruto looked puzzled for a moment. "Wait, there's a way to stop them from hurting me?"

**"Of course! All you need to do is make them fear you! Make them realize any transgression will be punished severely! Force them to quake in terror when you pass bye in the streets!" **At that, it paused for a moment.** "Then, maybe you will be worthy of a deal with me."**

"A deal?"

**"Yes, a deal. But that is not important right now. It seems someone is trying to wake you up. Have fun!" **Tilting its head back, it barked out rough laughter as Naruto faded from his mindscape.

OOOOO

"There you go. Welcome back to the land of the living." Staring down at the awakening boy, was a beautiful teenage girl with purple hair in a ponytail that was fanned out in the back. Her eyes were brown, and pupil less and quite pretty, in all honesty. And the rest of her face was rather attractive as well. She had on a brown trench coat, fishnet bodysuit, and a short leather skirt. (And at the angle Naruto was at, lets just say he got a bit more than he asked for.)

Blushing slightly, and looking away Naruto stuttered out a response. "U-u-uh, who are you?"

"He he, like what you see? Well, I am the Super, Sexy and Single Anko Mitarashi!" She exclaimed, grinning down at the boy. "And you are?"

"Naruto Uzumaki. Um, Anko-san, where are we? What happened to that crazy lady?"

At that Anko scowled. 'Stupid villager' she thought. Then she forced her expression to soften a bit. "That's Anko-chan to you. And we are currently in my living room, since I carried you to my house after you fell and knocked yourself out. And that _lady_ didn't chase you after you ran in the forest. It makes sense really, none of those idiots would last ten seconds in here." Observing his puzzled expression she questioned him. "You know, the Forest of Death? Ever heard of it?"

"Um, no." He said sheepishly, while scratching the back of his head. "Why wouldn't anyone follow me in?"

"It's called the Forest of _Death_ for a reason gaki." At that Naruto stuck out his tongue, which surprisingly (or not, if you know Anko) she did in return. "People are afraid of this forest, it's filled with all manner of creepy crawlies and huge beasties. There are even plants in here that will eat people!"

'The people fear this forest, so they leave it alone...' "And you live here?" He questioned.

She chuckled briefly. "Yup! Home sweet home for lil' ol' me. Since the villagers don't happen to like me either... I live here. Speaking of home, it's about time I take you back to yours kiddo."

Frowning, he replied. "I have no home, ever since those mean orphanage ladies kicked me out a year ago, I've lived on the street."

"Ah, well then... that _is_ a problem." Pondering her options, and his, she came to a conclusion. "Well then, would you like to live here with me?" Adding to the effect, she spread out her arms (giving Naruto even more of a view of her... assets) and stepped back to allow him to see the rest of the room he was in. Looking around, he noticed that the room was a small living room, tan walls, with a few wooden chairs, a green couch (which he was currently on) and a small window on the far side of the room. There was a doorway that led to a small hall to his right. The ceiling was white, and the floor was wooden. All in all, a very cozy little room.

"But! Don't expect to get a free ride!" She smiled sadistically. "You will be doing chores around the house everyday! And, I don't want you to be a bum all your life, so you will be learning to become a ninja!"

Tears began welling in Naruto's eyes, and his shoulders began to shake.

Concerned, Anko said "Oi! Don't be like that, it will be difficult sure, but you'll survive."

"No, that's not it. It's just," he sniffed. "no one has ever wanted me around before, I've always been alone. A-and, you are offering your h-h-home to me."

Anko sighed, she was never good with kids, but she figured he could use a little support at this moment. So she slowly wrapped him in a hug, allowing him to cry into her chest. After a few minutes, he cried himself back into dreamland, and she put him back down on the couch. 'Don't worry gaki, I know what that feels like. It'll be okay.'

OOOOO

Waking up to the smell of bacon, Naruto groggily got up from his position on the couch.

'Where?... Oh yeah, I'm in Anko's house.' Slowly, he made his way out of the room, and turning right at another doorway in the hall, he found himself in a small kitchen. This room, like the one he was in a moment ago, was relatively small, but contained all of the necessary fixtures. With a white wallpaper and tile floor, it was a nice kitchen overall.

"Good morning." Anko smiled from her position in front of the stove.

"G' morning." Came the soft reply from Naruto. Noticing two places set at the table in the next room, he shuffled over and sat down.

"Hey! Who told you that you could sit down?"

"Wha?" Came his intelligent reply. Anko snorted and came over with their breakfast and gave him his portion.

Taking a bite out of some toast, she spoke between mouthfuls. "Alright gaki, now today was special, consider this a one time thing. I will not be cooking breakfast for you... probably ever again." Reaching over to the counter a short ways away, she picking up a scroll and threw it at his face. Catching it, Naruto sent a perplexed look at her. "That is a scroll containing your duties around the house. Read through it and it will tell you all you need to know about keeping this house in working order."

Smiling awkwardly at Anko, Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "Um, I would, but no one has ever taught me how to read. I can puzzle together words most of the time, but other than that..."

Anko rubbed the bridge of her nose. "This is going to be interesting. Well, you better be a fast learner, because I don't have time to teach you everyday, and now that I have to support you also, I will probably have to take on more missions too." Anko sighed and finished off the last piece of bacon on her plate.

Grinning at the kid across the table as she gestured to her empty plate and his. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"I said you would be doing chores, so one of your responsibilities will be to do the dishes."

Naruto contemplated retorting, but just resigned to his fate and picked up their dishes and went over to the sink, beginning to wash them.

"I've got an hour until I have to head to the Torture and Interrogation Department to see what they need me to do today. So we will be using that time to start teaching you how to read. So hurry up and get those dishes done, and then come back into the living room and we'll start."

OOOOO

Anko was surprised, Naruto turned out to be an incredibly quick learner. They had just spent a little under an hour going over reading and he took to it like a fish to water. A few more hours of help and he would be at an acceptable reading level.

"Okay gaki, go through as much of that history scroll as you can, and when I get back later today, I will help you with what you missed, and we will continue your reading and writing lessons."

" 'Kay, thank you so much Anko-chan!" The boy then wrapped the older girl in a tight hug, attempting to express his gratitude through squeezing her as hard as he could. She patted him on the head, and smiled softly down at him.

"Sure thing kid." With that she turned and opened the door, and left him to his studying.

OOOOO

Anko had just closed the gate to the forest, and had turned around when an ANBU jumped down in front of her. "Anko Mitarashi, you are wanted by the Hokage as soon as possible. Please make your way towards his office." And with that, he jumped away towards other duties.

'Hmm, I wonder what he wants.' Jumping on top of a rooftop, she made her way to the Hokage Tower.

She entered the tower and walked up the steps towards the Hokage's office. Knocking twice and hearing a muffled "Enter" she stepped through the wooden door.

"Ah, Ms. Mitarashi, thank you for coming." Greeted the aged Hokage.

Anko bowed slightly. "Hokage-sama."

Smiling at her, he replied. "So I bet you're wondering why I brought you here." Seeing her nod he continued. "Well, this meeting concerns a little blond-haired child that ran into the Forest of Death yesterday. First of all, is Naruto okay?" Again, she nodded. "Good, good. Well, Anko, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for keeping him safe for the time being at least. And actually, I wanted to explain a bit of the situation to you."

"The situation?"

"Yes, as you probably know, Naruto Uzumaki is the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi. The beast was sealed by the Yondaime, who sacrificed his life for the sealing process." Sarutobi sighed. "Ever since that day, the villagers could not get past their loss and hatred to see a little boy for who he is, a hero. Back when he was younger, I used to take him out to ramen and hang out with him, to at least show him not everyone hated him, but... every time, I would get another council member trying to prevent Naruto from getting 'special treatment' from me. It eventually got so bad, that after I would leave him, I would get reports from my ANBU that people were beating the poor boy. Last year I had to decide to stop visiting Naruto, and keep him under 24/7 ANBU surveillance, so that he would be better protected. Even then though, some of the ANBU held Naruto in contempt, and would ignore people that attacked him. Now though, perhaps you can help me make it up to the boy." Sarutobi put his pipe into his mouth, and lit it. Sucking in some smoke, he smiled sadly. "If you would be willing, I would be eternally grateful."

Anko looked puzzled. "Sir?"

"I am prepared to pay you the sum of an ongoing B-rank mission to take care of him, and teach him to become a ninja, so that he can eventually defend himself. He can start the academy next year, and with your help, he would be more than ready. I will help wherever I can, such as getting you materials for him. I would also consider accelerating your promotion, to tokubetsu jonin (Anko is a chuunin at this moment), if you did this for me."

Mulling it over in her mind, she came upon her answer relatively easily. "Well, Hokage-sama, I had already told him that he could stay with me, so I am more than willing to accept this mission."

Smiling, Sarutobi pointed to a storage scroll currently rolled up at the edge of his desk. "That has your first payment, and some basic scrolls from the library for Naruto, they contain information on subjects such as the Five Great Nations, different types of justu, and other material for a young shinobi. They are all written for young readers, and contain fairly simple language. I assume he doesn't know how to read yet?" The chuunin shook her head. "That's to be expected I guess, those scrolls will help him with the basics."

Taking the scroll, Anko bowed towards the leader of the village. "Thank you Hokage-sama, I will not let you down." She then turned to leave and opened the door.

"I know you won't, thank you again Anko." The Hokage smiled at her. 'I think this situation will help heal both of them.' He then turned to the stacks of paper next to him. "Wha?! Since when were there THREE stacks of paperwork?!" Gaping at his foe, he shook his head and then took a paper from the top of one of the stacks and began furiously going through it.

OOOOO

"I'm home!" yelled Anko. Looking down the hall, she noticed Naruto sitting on the couch, reading through the scroll she gave him. "Heya squirt!" She smiled cheekily as Naruto scowled at her. "Guess what?"

"What?"

"The Hokage gave me some scrolls for you and said you could enter the academy in a year! And, he gave me some more money to help take care of your sorry behind!"

"Hey!" Naruto shouted indignantly at her. "Wait, really? He did that for me?"

"Yup! So first things first, new clothes for you! Time to go shopping!" Anko cheered and ran over, grabbing his hand, and performing a shunshin, appeared just outside the forest of death.

Naruto looked a little dizzy. "Woah, what the heck?"

"A shunshin, one of the many abilities of a ninja."

The rest of the day was spent roaming around Konoha, looking for a new set of clothes for the lad. At first, shop owners glared at the boy, and attempted to refuse him service, but with some... convincing from Anko, they caved. Eventually they settled on some black, short-sleeve shirts, with a few sets cargo pants and a pair of black steel-toed boots. The clothes weren't exactly strong enough for a ninja, but it was cheaper and Naruto wasn't a ninja just yet. Buying some training kunai and shuriken, they made their way over towards Anko's favorite dango shop for some lunch. Sitting down inside the shop, they made small talk while waiting for their food to arrive.

"Anko, you said that they villagers didn't like you either, but how come they don't try to attack you like they did me?"

Anko looked annoyed briefly, at him bringing up a bit of a sore subject for her, but brushed it off. "Well gaki, a couple of reasons actually. First off, I am a ninja, so I have the skills to fend off any attacks from ignorant villagers, and they know this. Secondly, I have a bit of a reputation around here, especially since I work in the T&I, so people don't like to mess with me."

"So they leave you alone, because you are strong, and because they fear you?" Naruto asked.

She paused for a moment. "Yes, I guess you could say that." Little did she know, that with that statement, and what the Kyuubi told Naruto, he would be changed forever.

OOOOO

Over the course of the next few weeks, Naruto and Anko got acquainted with each other. They talked about their likes, dislikes, dreams, goals, etc. And figured out they had quite a bit in common. Finding a new kindred spirit in each other, they discovered the other's company usually quite enjoyable. Anko also found out that Naruto's learning ability was through the roof, as he had already finished learning how to read and write proficiently after about a month, and had also completed the entire storage scroll worth of material Anko brought from the Hokage. And, he had been doing almost all of the chores around the house.

The kunoichi was currently on her way back to the Hokage Tower, to return the scroll the Hokage had given her and request a new one. Passing the secretary, she went up to the door and knocked twice.

Sarutobi looked at the door for a moment. 'I swear, if that is another council member I am going to be pissed.' "Enter." At that, Anko walked in, surprising the Hokage.

"Hello Hokage-sama, I came back to request new material for the gaki, he's already finished this set."

He looked at her completely taken aback. "...You don't say? Well that is... good, that is very good. He must be a very intelligent little boy. Very well." Rummaging around in his desk, he found the next storage scroll for Naruto. "So tell me Anko, how is he doing overall?"

"Really well sir, he is taking all of the information and absorbing it like a sponge. Not only that, but my house has never been cleaner!" She then started to do a victory pose, then realized who she was in front of, and sheepishly smiled and put her arms down.

"Ah, well yes, that's nice. Anyways, here is the next set of scrolls for the boy." He smiled as he handed her the scrolls, and stuck his pipe into his mouth.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama." Anko bowed and left the office.

OOOOO

CLANG

"Raise your elbow more, if you don't, I could just slide my kunai down yours and along your arm." Anko chided her student.

"Well yeah, but it would only be a scratch, and I heal pretty fast anyways." he retorted.

The kunoichi stepped back. "When fighting some opponents, such as myself, a scratch will still kill you gaki." Naruto's eyes widened slightly. "I poison my blades, that way, all it takes is a nick, and I can have a deadly toxin enter the bloodstream of my enemy."

Naruto looked spellbound. "Woah! Could you teach me about poisons? What can they do?"

"Well, they can do all sorts of things, they can paralyze, kill, make your enemy feel like their veins are filled with molten metal, all sorts of fun things! But that is a discussion for a later date, today we need to work on that ugly thing you call a stance! Now, again!"

CLANG

OOOOO

For the next 6 months. It went pretty much the same. Naruto would read through the scrolls from the Hokage at an incredible rate, would train with Anko on things such as chakra control and taijustu, and would do all of the chores around the house. Naruto also had fun learning about what the girl did in T&I, and was just starting to learn about poisons and how to mess with your opponents mind.

Anko had been promoted to tokubetsu jonin 3 months after taking on Naruto, and was enjoying the higher pay and the perks that came with being a jonin, special or otherwise.

"So Anko, can you give me a report of Naruto's overall progress?"

"Well Hokage-sama, I have to say that the kid would make a truly astounding ninja." She thought for a moment. "He is leaning towards being a medium, long range shinobi. His taijustu is mostly about dodging and putting distance between him and his opponent. He is incredibly accurate with senbon and can hit moving targets fairly easily. His chakra control has been something that I have been drilling into his head, and I can say that he is improving, but it is still below average, so he is still lacking in the genjustu department. He is getting better at recognizing illusions, and can dispel them when he does notice them. His ninjustu is pretty powerful because of his chakra capacity, and he likes to learn them on his own." She tapped her chin briefly. "I actually gave him a scroll on the henge a month ago, and he figured out how to make it a physical change by himself."

The Hokage looked impressed. "Astounding, he took an E rank technique and figured out the B rank equivalent."

"Yeah, overall... I would put him at already genin level. If only lacking the experience and teamwork aspects." She summarized.

"Impressive Anko, I am very happy with his progress." His expression turned more serious. "Now I've had some reports of Naruto... scaring shop owners and some civilians. Care to explain?"

She waved her hand dismissively. "Oh those civilians are just over-reacting. So he enjoys messing with their heads a little, no biggie."

The Hokage considered her for a moment, then nodded. "If you think he is okay, than I will take your word for it."

After reviewing the effort put in by both student and teacher, the Hokage decided it was time to give them both a vacation and allow them to leave the village for two weeks to enjoy themselves.

OOOOO

"Hurry up and finish packing your stuff gaki, we're heading out in ten minutes!" Called Anko.

"I'm coming, sheesh." retorted Naruto from down the hall. After sealing all of his clothes and other necessities into a scroll, he walked towards the front door where Anko was currently waiting. "So where are we going anyways?"

"We're heading west, there is a town along the way towards Amegakure that is renowned for its bathhouses and other fun activities. We are going to be making the most out of this little vacation of ours!"

Heading out, they left the village behind and began walking towards their destination.

OOOOO

"Finally made it! Okay kid, go check into the hotel called the Amari Inn. And I'm going to go find the nearest bath house and soak for a good few hours. Don't get into any trouble!" Waving at him, Anko turned left at the intersection while Naruto went on straight.

For the next week and a half, the pair lazed about. Anko spent a lot of her time either at bath houses, or walking around with Naruto going around to the different shops and restaurants. Both were thoroughly enjoying their time off and away from Konoha.

OOOOO

Naruto coughed as he shakily got to his feet and looked around. 'How the heck did I end up here?'

_Flashback_

Naruto was currently walking by himself to head back to the hotel for the night. Enjoying looking around at the people who (since they didn't know who he was) _weren't_ glaring and/or sneering at him, he made his way through the streets. It was then that someone going the opposite direction bumped into him and then kept walking.

'Well, _excuse_ you. Wait a second...Gama-chan!' Checking his pocket, he realized that the person he just bumped into stole his wallet, and gift from the Hokage. Whipping around, he spotted the perpetrator and took off in pursuit. The thief realized he had been spotted and broke into a run. After a few seconds he took a right into an alley.

Giving chase, Naruto used his training and pumped chakra into his legs. Feeling that slight tingling in his muscles, he knew he could go even faster now, and ran up to the alley and darted down it. Coming up to an intersection with another alley, he swiveled his head around to find the thief.

'Where are you... Aha!' Spotting a rapidly retreating form, he ran off towards it. 'I know! I'll climb the walls and use the roofs to keep track of him!'

Nodding to himself, he ran towards the nearest wall and started to channel his chakra into his feet in order to climb it. Unfortunately for Naruto, this particular section of the wall was actually a genjustu, hiding a rather deep and dark hole in the ground. So when he put his foot on the 'wall' he actually went straight through it and plummeted towards the bottom of the hole.

_Flashback end_

'Oh yeah, well this is just great... he stole Gama-chan...I wonder how long I've been out.' Blindly groping around for some source of light, he bumped into a table and managed to grab a candle from it. Using a minor katon justu, he lit the candle and tried to make out his surroundings. From what he could tell, he was in some sort of underground house, probably a safe house of some kind. It had a few bedrooms, a washroom and what looked like a small study.

Taking note that everything was slightly dusty, he came to the conclusion that whoever was here left a few weeks ago, so he decided to take a look around.

Naruto spotted a small book on one of the nightstands. 'What's this?' Flipping open the book, he started reading.

_Journal of Keshi Mayonaka_

_October 5_

_Something is happening to everyone. Ever since Hanzo was killed by that Pein character, people have started disappearing! Hanzo's friends, his family, people he did business with, they're all vanishing! I've got to get out of the country, so I'm taking Hisaki and Arai with me. Hopefully we'll be able leave before we all disappear too!_

_October 7_

_I've convinced the academy teachers to release Hisaki and Arai for a 'short training period' with me, their jonin caretaker, so hopefully this won't arouse suspicion before we are long gone. I've also started collecting as many justu scrolls and supplies as I can, if we are going to be on the run, I want those kids to be able to defend themselves. Not to mention I've gotten a bit rusty over the years, merely being a caretaker of a couple of Hanzo's nephews._

_October 15_

_We finally made it out of the country. I've been covering our tracks as best I could, but I'm still worried. If someone was able to take out Saikoro, I'm not sure how much hope we have. That man was a spymaster! He was as slippery as a snake, and as tangible as a shadow! But they found his corpse a few days ago in one of Hanzo's estates. But I will not give up, if only for the kids sakes'._

_October 28_

_We finally made it to the safe house. I think this is far enough into the Fire Country that not even Pein will be able to find us, so tomorrow I'm going to take the kids out and relax for a day. They have been real troopers, not even complaining during the long runs and short nights. After relaxing for a day, I think we can begin their training again._

After that entry, the journal stopped. 'Huh, guess I know what happened to them.' Naruto thought grimly. Closing the journal and beginning to look around again, he took note of the justu scrolls on the tables. 'We wouldn't want all of these scrolls to go to waste now would we?'

With that thought, he began to collect everything he could find and store them in his own scrolls. Finally he came upon a few sets of clothes that thoroughly intrigued him. They consisted of baggy camo jackets, with many pockets lining the inside and outside, along with a large hood. The pants were the same camo pattern and had the same style of pockets for things such as scrolls and kunai. But the most interesting aspect was a few full face gas masks, with two round pieces of glass for each eye, that were laying lined up next to a jacket.

'Oh I like this, I like this a lot.' Naruto chuckled softly to himself.

After finishing sealing up everything that he could find, he made his way back towards the ladder that led out of the safe house.

OOOOO

"Where is he?!" Anko was pacing furiously around the room. It was now 5 am and Naruto had yet to show up. "I swear if he got himself hurt I'm going to beat the crap out of him." She paused briefly to think over what she just said. Throwing her arms up in the air in frustration she continued pacing. It was then there was a click at the door and it opened. She let the intruder open the door and then saw the object of her frustration walk in. Running over and hugging (see: flying tackle) him, she started to berate him.

"Don't you ever do that again! Where the hell were you?! It's five in the morning! I've been worried sick!"

"Hold on Anko-chan, I'll explain everything." Naruto tried to appease the angry kunoichi.

"You better!"

So he went on to tell about how he got his wallet stolen, the brief chase, and then finally landing into the safe house. Showing her the journal he picked up, he let her read through it and went into the bathroom to clean up.

OOOOO

**And there you have it! The first chapter of my soon to be famous Naruto of the Acid Rain! Muhahaha...haha..heh... um yeah well... Anyways, I hoped you enjoyed reading it! Yeah I know, I didn't offer up any amazing abilities or fight scenes yet, but this is only the first chapter, and he is still 5 going on 6 years old! Next chapter will have something, I promise. Just to sate your appetite, here is a brief list of some justu he will be learning from Keshi's stash and from other sources:**

**Acid Rain (What he will become known for)**

**Poison Gas Cloud Technique**

**Shadow Clone**

**Poison Cloud Clone**

**Explosive Shadow Clone**

**Hiding with Camo Technique**

**Gunshot**

**Explosive Gunshot**

**Sly Mind Affect Technique**

**Violent Stream**

**Mist Servant Technique**

**If any of you noticed, I took some justu from the Ame genin that were in the chuunin exams. I figured, that since Keshi was from Ame, he would have been teaching his charges similar techniques. I will be explaining the techniques when they come up in the story.**

**Cya later!**


	2. Chapter 2

**What is UP people!? Tomaxor here! I hope you are having an awesome day/night/morning or whenever you happened to read this. Well you've all waited patiently and here it is: the second chapter of Naruto of the Acid Rain! It's packed with action! Drama! And other random crap! Woot! :D**

**This chapter came out so quickly because I'm on break and have a lot of time on my hands at the moment. That ends on the 6th. Not something I can control.**

**Thank you for the reviews! They inspired me to write!**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto. I do happen to own the laptop I am using to write this though, that's got to count for something.

**Enjoy!**

OOOOO

Naruto came out of the bathroom, wearing the gas mask, camo-jacket and camo-pants. "Hey Anko, what do you think?"

Looking up from Keshi's Journal she replied. "Hmm?" Then she stifled a laugh. "What are you wearing?"

He scowled behind his gas mask. "Hey, I think it looks intimidating! And anyways, it will go great with my fighting style."

"Okay, I think I get where you are going with that, but explain."

"Well, first of all, this fabric is pretty tough, I even tested it against a knife. And there are lots of pockets for kunai and shuriken. Also with this camo pattern," gesturing to himself, "I will be harder to spot in the forests, and there were some other sets that had different color camo for different environments. And finally, with this gas mask," pointing to his face, "I can surround my enemies with poison clouds, and while they are dealing with it, I can walk right through unhindered. I'm also pretty sure that this thing works as a re-breather too."

Anko nodded. "Okay, so maybe that will work for you. We'll see." She glanced at the clock on the nightstand. "Well, since you took until _5_ to get back here, we might as well head home now, so pack up the rest of your stuff."

They both began to put away their clothes and other things, when Naruto looked over to his companion. "Bye the way, if you don't care, I'm going to train with the jutsu that Keshi left behind, they all sound pretty awesome."

"Sure, sure. You found them, so they're yours now." The purple-haired girl replied. "Well, now that we are packed, lets go check out and head to Konoha."

OOOOO

"Oh boy! Gate duty! AGAIN!" Kotestu complained.

Izumo glanced at his partner. "Calm down, this is one of the most important duties. To protect the people of Konoha by making sure only those that are authorized can get through the gate." He spoke sagely.

"Yeah right, most boring mission we could have possibly taken..." Kotestu continued to grumble. "Hey, is that someone off in the distance?"

"Looks like it."

"Hey you two!" Anko called to the two gate keepers.

Izumo recognized the voice and went over to the gate house to check off Anko and Naruto as back from their vacation. "Hey Anko, hey... Naruto? Is that you?"

"Yes." came the boy's muffled reply as his glass eye pieces glinted off the evening sun.

"Uh huh... that's cool. See you later then."

As the two passed through the gate, Kotestu whispered over. "Well that was interesting. I'm not sure whether I want to be impressed by his getup, or creeped out."

"Me neither..."

OOOOO

"We've still got the rest of the day off, so go do whatever you want. I'm going to find Kurenai-chan and go get some dango!" Running off, she left Naruto to his own devices.

Thinking about what he wanted to do the rest of the day, he walked towards the market district. 'Time to test out a theory' he chuckled darkly to himself.

As he walked past a group of adults, which appeared to be drunk, one of them called out to him. "Hey freak! What's with the costume?"

Naruto disappeared and reappeared next to the drunkard with a kunai at the man's throat. "Did you know, that all I have to do is scratch you with this kunai, and you will be writhing on the ground in agony? It's a special toxin that is highly corrosive to flesh, and it can burn a hole right through your arm." Naruto didn't actually have any poison on his blade, but the drunks didn't need to know that.

"H-h-hey man! He didn't mean nuthin' by it. Right Tiaesul?" said one of the other men.

The man was as white as a ghost. "R-r-right."

"Good," Naruto eye-smiled at the man. "then I suggest you keep your mouth _shut_." At that Naruto walked off, all the while, smiling like he had just won the lottery.

'I'm going to mark that off as a resounding success. heh heh heh... maybe I'll head home and start looking through some of the new scrolls I picked up.'

"Look at that weirdo over there!"

The gas masked boy turned to see another group. 'Or, maybe I'll have some fun with more test subjects!'

The rest of Naruto's night was spent going around scaring random citizens and proving that fear was a very powerful weapon. When he got home he took out his storage scrolls and laid them out of the floor of his room, releasing their contents. After putting away everything that he had before the trip, and hanging up his new camo outfits, he went back to the collection of scrolls. Looking them over, he saw that there were a total of 15 scrolls that he had picked up. 10 of which were jutsu scrolls, 3 contained chakra control exercises, 1 was a scroll on the inner workings of the gas mask, and 1 scroll held an assortment of weapons. Deciding it would be pretty smart to know what he was putting on his face, and entrusting his life to, he picked up the scroll with information on the gas mask. Sitting on his couch/bed, he began to read.

_Thank you for purchasing the Clear Air-OT23. This scroll contains the basics on how this model works, and how to maintain it. If you have any questions, please send your mail to..._

'Blah, blah, blah... here we go.'

_...the Clear Air-OT23 is a full-face respirator that works on a dual-filter, single-re-breather system._

'Guess it does work underwater...'

_The filters use three methods to make sure the air you breathe is clean and fresh. The primary defense is a simple particle filtration grate. This works to remove large particulates from the air, such as dust and spores. The second line of defense is a chemical absorption barrier, that works to collect 'organic' impurities. The final piece of the filter is a chemical reaction barrier. This will react with chemicals such as chlorine and will bond with them, preventing them from being carried into the lungs. With all three pieces, this filter system, with one filter on each side of the face, will keep you breathing clean and fresh air for hours on end, even if one filter breaks down._

_The second part of the Clear Air-OT23 is a re-breather. This is a common piece of equipment for any underwater endeavors. Consisting of a simple, chakra powered, water barrier. This machine works through the use of electrolysis to separate the oxygen from the hydrogen, and then delivers the pure oxygen through the mask._

_Maintenance:_

_We have had our researchers working for many hours to provide you, the customer, with a good product, that is easy to maintain. We realized that most of our customers would be ninja, so we worked day and night to make sure that this model could be used in the field for as long as needed, with minimal upkeep requirements. This model also comes with a small clasp that can be released to open a hatch, located in front of the mouth. When open, it allows the wearer to eat while keeping the mask on, shaving off precious time between eating and being ready for active duty._

_Keeping the filters working..._

For the rest of the night, Naruto read through how to work his gas mask, how long between filter cleanings, and what to do if any part broke down. He went to bed, happy with his progress, and thinking over all the devious new things he could do with his new equipment.

OOOOO

BEEP

BEEP

BEE-SMACK!

"How I hate mornings..." Naruto slowly pushed himself out of bed and stumbled towards the bathroom. Stepping inside the shower, he took off his clothes and, throwing them onto the bathroom floor, turned it on. After 10 minutes of washing, he stepped back out, squeaky-clean, and then proceeded to brush his teeth. He then got dressed, slipped on his mask and tossed up his hood and inspected himself in the mirror.

'Hmm, something is missing... Something to add to the effect. I've got it!'

Taking off his gas mask, he left the bathroom and went over to a small desk he had put in the living room/his bedroom. Picking up a brush and dipping it in ink, he painted the word FEAR (in kanji) on the forehead of the mask.

'Perfect.'

Slipping it back on, he left his room and went down to the kitchen to grab a quick bite to eat. Briefly wondering where Anko was, he shrugged off the thought and started to boil some water. After making and eating his breakfast, he went back to the living room and picked up one of the chakra control exercise scrolls.

'Maybe the Ame shinobi had some exercises that can help me.' Skimming through the scroll, he came upon a set that he had never heard of before, and for good reason too.

_Underwater Exercises_

_This next set of exercises is chuunin and jounin level. Please note that these techniques require a re-breather._

_The Chakra Bubble_

_This exercise is a more extreme version of the water walking technique. It takes the concept of pushing chakra off of one's feet to keep from touching that water, and applies it to the whole body. In order to do this exercise properly, one has to submerge themselves fully in a body of water, and then proceed to exude chakra from every tenketsu point evenly. This will create a small chakra bubble around your entire body. If done properly, one can go underwater, and then come back out, completely dry._

_A re-breather is needed for this exercise._

Rolling up the scroll, and putting it aside, Naruto checked himself over to make sure that he had everything he would need to survive a few hours in the Forest of Death.

Now normally, one would think that letting a 5 going on 6 year old loose into a forest known for giant human-eating centipedes, and other deadly flora and fauna, wouldn't be a smart idea. But having Anko as a tour guide for his first couple weeks, helped Naruto immensely. He knew what regions to avoid if you didn't want to have to fight for your life, what areas contained game that a human could eat, and what parts of the forest that had bodies of water. But, he also knew he always had to be prepared for anything and everything, as his purple-haired friend often beat into his head (sometimes literally, with a rather large sign that had kanji for 'Be Prepared At All Times' written on it).

'Poison vials, check, kunai, check, shuriken, check, senbon, check, emergency supplies, check, ration bar, check. Looks like I'm ready.'

Heading out, he went south and, while avoiding the areas with the huge blood-sucking leeches, arrived at a small river that ran through the forest. Setting aside his jacket and pants and his extra pair of underwear, he ran across the water and stopped in the middle. Releasing the flow of chakra to his feet, he sank into the cold water. When he was finally at the bottom, he began to try and push chakra out of his tenketsu points. He found that this exercise was just as hard as he thought it would be, as he could briefly flare his chakra from different points on his body, but could never maintain it over his entire frame for any amount of time.

'The joys of huge chakra reserves, and fuzzy tenants.' he thought to himself as he tried yet again to maintain a bubble. As the hours wore on, he got better, but soon realized he had a long way to go. Around lunchtime he decided to collect his stuff and head back to work on some of his chores for the day. About halfway home, he accidently alerted some rather large jumping spiders to his presence.

Looking up into the canopy, he saw 4 spiders looking down at him with their beady eyes. Each was black with white hair on their legs. Two had large green mandibles, while the other two had red. Their quarter foot long fangs were dripping in poison, making it look like they were salivating at the prospect of eating the boy. Thinking that he had never seen these types of spider, he figured that if he could extract their poison, he could add to his growing stash. Making sure he had extra vials on him, he got into a ready stance.

The first spider jumped down at him from his right side. Hopping backward, he waited for it to land and then dove forward at the spider's exposed side with a kunai in each hand. He sliced off a few legs at the joint with one kunai, and impaled its head with the kunai in his other hand. Two more spiders jumped down from their positions, coming in at his back and front at the same time. Jumping up and to the right, he kicked one spider in its eye, while using his momentum to carry him to a nearby tree.

Sticking to its side, he ran up the tree. The last spider decided it was then that it wanted to join the fray. Naruto was expecting this, however and performed a back flip over the flying spider, while impaling its head with a kunai. Still midair, he threw two shuriken at each remaining spider, hitting them in the eyes and abdomen, killing both. Naruto landed on the ground a little ways away, and walked towards the arachnid corpses, while pulling out a few vials. He then spent the next few minutes removing the poison glands from the spiders and putting the venom into the vials. After he was done, he decided head home and ask Anko what type of spider they were, and what the poison could do.

OOOOO

"Greetings Anko-chan." Naruto waved from his position in the hall as he walked into the kitchen. "I've got a question for you."

"What's up?"

"I encountered some large jumping spiders on my way home. They were about the size of a small dog, black skin, white hair, and green and red mandibles. Any idea what I'm talking about?"

She cupped her chin in thought. "I think so, those things jump around like fleas?"

Naruto nodded and continued. "Yeah, they did. Well, I collected some venom off them, and I wanted to know what it would do to a person."

"Oh that stuff is great!" she smiled evilly. "The poison from the green ones works to paralyze, slowly making the body go numb and limp. As long as it has a way into the bloodstream or lungs, it will do the same thing, though the time it takes to effect varies. The red one works to achieve the same goal, but through forcing the subject to sleep. Both are mostly harmless, since they just work to give the spider time to wrap up their victims, and don't harm the body."

The masked kid stood there for a moment, mulling over what he had just collected. "Think they would work in aerosol form?" Anko nodded and his eyes gained a maniacal glint to them. Then it went away and he turned to the fridge and pulled out some meat for a sandwich. "By the way, I tried out a new chakra control exercise earlier, it was really tough, but I think it will help a lot."

"Heaven knows you need better control." she commented, smiling knowingly at him.

Rolling his eyes, he retorted. "Psh, whatever. So how was your time with Kurenai?"

"Good, we got to catch up some, since we hadn't seen each other lately. Well, I'm done with my break, so I've got to head back to the T&I department, Ja ne!" And with a wave, she disappeared in a poof.

OOOOO

Over the next 3 months before entering the academy, though he continued to read the scrolls from the Hokage, and do the chores around the house, Naruto's primary focus was on his chakra control, and his poisons. With assistance from Anko, he finally figured out how to get the spider venom into spray form. He then took his jacket and pants, and threaded multiple tubes throughout them, that led to small holes in the fabric of his attire, and also down to the openings at the end of the sleeves and pants. He connected the tubes to canisters containing his gaseous poisons, and hid everything all within his clothes. By using his chakra, he could regulate the gas, and open and close the pressure cans. He checked the gas release method and, while Anko was standing by, made sure his mask could filter the particulates out, so he wouldn't knock himself out accidentally.

That was not the only modification he made to his outfit. He also installed hidden blades (AN: I don't own Assassin's Creed, but damn those blades are awesome!) inside his sleeves, and one on a boot. When retracted, they were stored inside their own vials filled with venom, so when they were extended, the liquid already coated the blades. He chose venom from some adders he had found and killed in the forest. Getting stabbed by one of his blades would result in the victim perspiring heavily, vomiting blood, bleeding from the nose and eyes, losing their vision, and collapsing within an hour. Overall, a pretty deadly toxin.

Not to be careless, he also carried the necessary anti-venoms and antidotes, just in case.

While Anko knew about the poison gas, she did not know about the blades and the venom. Naruto kept it a secret since he knew that she would have to report it to the Hokage, and he probably wouldn't approve of the venomous attachments.

Back onto the topic of his chakra control, he had finally mastered the Chakra Bubble exercise, and had recently moved onto the even more difficult Second Skin Exercise. This involved submerging in a body of water, performing the Chakra Bubble, and then leaving, while maintaining a thin coating of water over the entire body. This meant that not only did he have to continue exuding chakra from his body to keep the water off himself, but he also had to maintain a barrier around the outside of the water as well, to keep the it from draining away. This was by far one of the hardest things he had ever done. But, while he was working on it, his chakra control improved by leaps and bounds and Anko finally deemed his control good enough to start learning more powerful jutsu, and he even started working on some of the jutsu from his Ame scroll collection.

So far, he had mastered **Solid** **Henge** and **Kawarimi **and could perform both it without hand seals, and almost no smoke at all. He had not yet mastered, but knew how to perform, **Mist Servant Technique**, **Fire Release: Grand Fireball** and **Violent Stream**.

OOOOO

It was finally Naruto's first day at the academy, he wasn't sure whether he should be excited or not, but after hearing what they would be learning over the course of 6 years, he thought to himself. 'I know most of this already.' So, he decided that no, he was not excited. But in order to show his appreciation to Anko and the Hokage, he would suffer through it.

Waving goodbye to Anko, he turned down the street and soon found himself in front of the academy. He was still 30 minutes early, but he decided to go find his class and wait inside anyways. Walking inside, past the front desk, and ignoring the weird look the secretary gave him, he eventually found his classroom and went inside. Finding no one, he strode up to the far right/back corner, and sat down. Eventually, since it was early in the morning, his head started to nod, and eventually he slumped forward to catch some Z's while he could.

Awaking with a start a few minutes later, he opened his eyes to see the instructor walk in. They both eyed each other for a moment, the teacher asked.

"You a student?"

"Yes." Naruto replied through his mask.

The man looked incredulous. "Name?"

"Naruto Uzumaki." At his answer, the instructor looked puzzled for a split second, and then scowled at the boy. Naruto sighed. 'Of course I get a teacher that hates me already. Great.'

"The mask is for...?"

Naruto smirked. "Breathing." The man's frown deepened for a second, until the door opened, and in walked a few more students. Smiling at the other kids as they passed him and took there seats, the teacher seemed to forget about the camo-clad boy in the back.

There was a rather loud boy, with two red fang marks on his cheeks and a dog in his jacket, that was exclaiming something to two other boys, while waving his hands around in the air in a dramatic way. One of the other boys was kind of fa... big-boned, and had a swirl mark on both cheeks, while the third had a ponytail similar to Anko's and appeared to be dragging his feet. They each took a seat near the middle of the class, and continued chatting happily. The lazy one turned around and looked up to where Naruto was seated and seemed to sober up a little when he saw what was written on his forehead. This caused the other two to look over and start muttering to each other.

The one with the dog in his jacket asked. "Who is that?"

"I don't know, but he looks troublesome..." (Whoever guesses who that was gets five internet points, just head over to the Internet Headquarters and pick them up for cash and prizes.)

"What is he wearing on his face?" inquired the dog-boy.

"I don't know, ask him." responded the larger boy.

"Hmph, fine." he retorted. "Hey! What is that thing on your face?"

Naruto eye-smiled at the three. "It's called a gas mask."

"What's it for?"

Muttering under his breath about stupid questions he answered. "Breathing."

The three other students looked between themselves briefly, then decided it wasn't worth pushing any further, turned back around and watched as more kids entered the classroom.

As more took their seats, one thing became clear, everyone seemed to want to avoid the strange gas masked boy sitting in the back. The only person willing to sit near him was a sunglass wearing boy, by the name of Shino Aburame. The bug-boy didn't seem to find anything wrong with him. He simply went up to the row that Naruto was sitting in, nodded at the boy, who nodded back, then sat down a seat over from him.

As all of the students seemed to have finally come in, the teacher started speaking. "Hello everyone! And welcome to your first day at the Academy! My name is Ryoushi Kusho and I will be your first year instructor. This is where you will learn the basics on how to be a ninja of Konohagakure. We'll start with role call everyday, and then move on to the lessons. Today though, since it's your first day, we will be playing ice-breaker games." Some students seemed happy, while others groaned.

"Okay, time to see if everyone made it. Shino Aburame?"

"Here." Shino raised his hand. And on down the list the teacher went. After determining that everyone was there, he told them that they were going to play the two truths and a lie game. A simple game where a student would come up with two truths and a lie about themselves, go up to the front of the class one at a time, and tell all three pieces of information. Then the rest of the class would have to try and guess which was the lie.

After a few minutes of letting the student think, the teacher started to volunteer people to come up. About midway through, the teacher called on Naruto. Sighing, he got up from his seat and went to the front.

"I am an orphan." The class started murmuring. "I have never been out of Konoha before. I live in the Forest of Death." At that the volume in the classroom picked up significantly.

The teacher chuckled to himself. "Well obviously, there is no way you live in the Forest of Death, that is the lie. I think you forgot an important part of this game, you have to be _convincing_." The class laughed.

Frowning Naruto stated. "No, that is a true statement." The class looked flabbergasted, and then began talking amongst themselves again.

"You're not an orphan?" called out a random girl.

He shook his head. "I am an orphan."

"So then you have been outside of Konoha then?" Naruto nodded and went back up to his desk.

The rest of the day passed fairly normally, with the teacher starting to talk about the Five Great Nations after the game. Naruto rolled his eyes and leaned against the wall to see if he could catch some more sleep.

"Naruto!" Ryoushi called out.

"Eh?"

"I asked you a question!"

Blinking, he asked. "Could you repeat the question?"

The teacher frowned and considered simply saying no, but he didn't want to appear mean to the rest of the students, and he was sure that he could make the boy appear stupid in front of his peers, so he said. "What are the 5 main villages and their Kages?"

"Konohagakure: Hokage, Kumogakure: Raikage, Kirigakure: Mizukage, Sunagakure: Kazekage and Iwagakure: Tsuchikage." Naruto replied.

"Ah, yes... that is correct." Turning back to the class, he continued the lesson.

OOOOO

"So how was your first day?" Anko asked when Naruto stepped into their home.

"Pathetic," She raised an eyebrow. "I already knew everything that the instructor talked about today." He then trudged towards his room.

"Yeah well, that shouldn't be too much of a surprise. You are probably one of the smartest kids I know."

He rolled his eyes and kept walking. "I'm the only kid you know."

Anko shrugged and then looked at him curiously for a moment. "By the way, are you planning on wearing that outfit everyday?" she inquired.

Turning slightly, he replied. "Yes. I like this outfit."

"Hmm, okay then. I was just curious." She smiled at him and then turned back to head towards her room.

OOOOO

A few weeks later was October 10, the anniversary of the Kyuubi attack, Naruto's birthday, and it had been a full year since Anko and Naruto had met each other.

"Morning sleepy head!" A certain kunoichi yelled as she came bounding in the room.

"Ugh, ihsmhthmeekmnd." Came his reply through a pillow.

The purple-haired girl smiled cheekily and poked him in the head a few times. "What was that?"

"You infuriating woman!" he responded.

"Wow. Nice vocabulary, very _sophisticated_."

He glared at her. "I said: 'It's the weekend,' so I'm taking today off. Let me sleep." Turning back over, he attempted to ignore her, but Anko had other ideas. She walked down to the end of the couch and ripped his sheets off him. Trying to get her to go away, he did his best to not respond, but she wouldn't leave. So, he groggily sat up and rubbed his eyes. "What do you want?"

Anko pouted. "Can't your Anko-chan do something special for you on your birthday?"

"Eh?" Naruto questioned.

"You know, your _birthday_?" The boy sighed. "Oh it won't be that bad, actually, if I have my way, it will be a pretty good day for you! Now go get ready and meet me in the kitchen when you're done." And she turned around and walked out.

A few minutes later, Naruto came out in his full garb and went into the specified room. "Alright! Well, eat some breakfast, and then we'll head out."

Later that morning, they left their home and started walking towards the village. "I have the lots of awesome things planned for you! First, we are going to head to _Explosives 'R Us_ (he he, I couldn't resist)! After that, lunch at your favorite place: Ichiraku's!" Naruto's mouth started to salivate. "Then, I'm going to take you to the Hokage, since he wanted to see you today. After that, well you can go do whatever you want the rest of the day, I'll do your chores."

Soon after, the pair stood in front of a store that had a huge sign: _Explosives 'R Us _with _Our prices will blow the competition away!_ written underneath.

"Wow, I had no idea this place existed..." Naruto mumbled as they walked in.

"Hello there! Welcome to my store!" said a rather tall man. He had a buzz cut, wore a blue long sleeve shirt, with black pants and shoes. He looked to be about 35 years old, with a bit of scruff growing on his chin. "What can I do ya' for?"

"Oh we're just going to be browsing. Introducing this kid here to the joys of things that go boom." Anko smiled at the man. For the next 3 hours (hey, if I could spend 3 hours in a store devoted to high explosives, I would) they went around, and looked at all the different objects. Anything from simple explosive notes, to super-charged explosive notes, to grenades, to even a list of jutsu that had to deal with blowing shit up, was looked at. Finally, after all of that time, Anko bought herself some super-charged explosive notes, and 10 normal explosive notes for Naruto as a present, while Naruto bought himself a canister of explosive gas.

Leaving much happier, and with less cash, they went on to get some ramen.

"Hello there! Welcome to Ichiraku's." An older man with grey hair greeted them.

"Hey Old Man." Said old man looked puzzled, so Naruto figured it would be prudent to remove his mask.

"Oh! Hey there Naruto! Didn't recognize you under that mask. Hey Ayame, our favorite customer is back! So what'll you have?"

Naruto sat down at the far right seat, while Anko sat next to him. "I'll have a large serving of miso ramen with roasted pork fillet."

"I'll have a pork ramen bowl please." A few minutes later, they were served their bowls. While Naruto was happily slurping his noodles, Teuchi leaned over the counter and whispered to older girl.

"Hey, I don't mean to be nosey, but what is with the writing on his mask?"

Anko stole a glance at Naruto to make sure he wasn't listening. "Well, I don't know what exactly goes on in that mind of his, but for some reason, he has started to fixate on that word. I mean, I enjoy messing with people's minds to fluster them and stuff, but he is starting to take it to a whole new level." She sighed. "As of now it's not so bad, he just seems to get a kick out of scaring people, but he's isolating himself more and more nowadays, and is starting to act weird."

Teuchi frowned. "Well he seems pretty normal right now." Pointing over to where Naruto was, noting that he was chatting with Ayame.

Nodding, she said. "Right now he's relaxed. But a lot of the time, especially around people he doesn't know, he is quiet, cold and distant. Some days he acts like that even to me. He's still just a kid, but he's becoming a bit... strange, that's the only way I can put it."

"That certainly doesn't sound good." he replied looking grave. Then he turned to the young boy. "Well Naruto, that bowl is on the house. Have a good birthday."

"Thanks Old Man." he nodded and then pulled his mask back on, and stood up. Anko paid for her meal and the pair lifted up the flaps on the stand and walked out.

"I'm worried about that boy, Ayame..."

OOOOO

"Come in." Sarutobi looked up from his paperwork. "Oh Naruto-kun! Happy birthday!" He smiled at the boy. Naruto came in and bowed.

"Hokage-sama."

"No need to be so formal, Naruto-kun. Well, I wanted you to come to my office today so I could give you a birthday present. The council may not like you very much, but you'll always be someone I consider family." Reaching down into a drawer on his desk, he pulled out a small box. Handing it to the boy, he watched as Naruto hesitantly opened the box and looked inside. He picked up a blue bracelet with a golden spiral marking on it. The camo-clad boy looked at the Hokage.

"That was your mother's favorite bracelet." A look of pure shock went through Naruto's eyes, while a soft smiled graced Anko's face. "Now before you ask. No, I'm sorry but I will not tell you who you're parents were right now. I will in good time, but right now you aren't ready. But I can tell you that I know for a fact; both of your parents loved you very much."

Standing there, staring at the bracelet in his hand, Naruto wasn't sure what to do. At first he wanted to cry but he pushed away that train of thought and simply put the bracelet safely into an inner pocket on his jacket. He then bowed deeply. "Thank you very much Hokage-sama." Turning to Anko, he said. "If it's okay with you, I am going to go home now."

She nodded, Naruto silently walked out of the office, followed by Anko.

Naruto spent the rest of the day, locked in his room (they had put a door on the archway that led to the living room since he was a permanent resident). Anko tried multiple times to get him to come out, but he never answered her calls.

The next morning, Naruto went about his chores and went to school as if nothing had changed, but Anko could tell he had a bit more spring in his step.

OOOOO

The next week was Anko's birthday, and Naruto wanted to pay her back for her part in making his birthday special. So, he spent the entire previous week planning what to do for her. On the morning of her birthday, he went out and got her favorite dango types and brought them back so she could eat breakfast in bed. Then after that, he took her to the top of the Hokage Monument where he took out a very nice looking set of tea cups and they had a tea ceremony. Anko considered it the best idea ever, and hugged him profusely afterwards. Following the ceremony, Naruto gave her a wrapped rectangular object, and handed it to her.

"What's this?"

"Open it." he insisted. Ripping open the package, she found a set of 5 exquisite kunai, one for each of the different chakra natures. Each was black, but when reflecting the light at a certain angle, appeared a different color (the one representing fire reflected red, the one for water was blue, etc). They were also all carved with intricate patterns along the flat of each blade.

"Each kunai is made of a different mixture of metals." Naruto explained. "They all conduct chakra, but react differently to it. The red one will have flames erupt along the blade, the blue one will extend to about 2 feet and will become curved. The brown one will become jagged like the earth, the silver one will become as sharp as a wind blade, and the yellow one will become electrified."

Anko gaped at the boy. As the minutes dragged on Naruto was starting to fidget. "Uh, do you like them?"

She grabbed Naruto in a tight hug. "Like them?! These are incredible! Simply AMAZING! I love them! Where on earth did you get something like this?! I've never seen anything like this before!" All she heard in response was a bit of gasping coming from Naruto's mask. Looking into an eye-piece, she noticed his eye was starting to roll back into his head. Releasing him, she chuckled and rubbed the back of her head as he coughed a few times.

"Well," he cleared his throat. "I went to the Hokage, and gave him my ideas for the blades, and he pointed me to the proper weapon smith. Apparently I was pretty lucky, because this guy had just come in to do some work on his son's (Asuma's) blades, and was going to leave in a week. And, according to the Hokage, he was one of the only men in the Fire country that had blades that could do what I had in mind. So I found him, and he showed me all the different types of chakra conductive kunai he had, and I bought those five."

"How much did these cost?! It must have been a fortune!" she exclaimed.

He crossed his arms and shook his head to show he wasn't going to tell her. (As it turns out, Naruto had been selling skins, fangs, precious stones and anything else he could find in the forest for quite some time now, so he had amassed quite a bit of money.) She pouted briefly, and then grabbed his hand and proceeded to take go around town showing off her new knives to all of her friends, all the while not letting go of Naruto's hand, much to his embarrassment.

OOOOO

The rest of Naruto's first year of school proved pretty boring for the young lad, as the academy didn't teach him anything new, and took up a lot of his time. While he could have easily been the top of the class, he ended up missing a good portion of the quizzes and tests, which brought down his grades. The reason being, that some days he just wouldn't show up, opting to work on his chakra control all day, or a new jutsu. So even though the tests he did take, he passed with flying colors, he was only around the middle of the class in terms of grades.

He could tell that the instructor didn't like him very much, as the few disgusted looks he sent Naruto's way were proof enough. But the man did prove that he could be professional when the time called for it and at least treated him with the bare minimum of 'cold disinterest,' which Naruto was just fine with. Most of the students kept their distance from him, while some avoided even looking at him altogether, especially after that one incident...

_Flashback_

It was the fourth week of the academy, and Naruto was simply going through the motions by that time. He would get up, have a small breakfast, and do a chore or two before leaving for school. After arriving at the academy, sitting down, and subsequently falling asleep, he waited for the rest of the class to arrive. After the morning lecture, they were let out to lunch, where he went and sat down at the same table as Shino.

"Hey Shino. How are you?" He greeted.

Shino nodded in his direction. "Hello Naruto. I am fine, you?"

"Good." After which they ate in comfortable silence for the rest of their lunch.

This was the extent of their relationship. While not the most engaging conversations, they did seem to have an understanding of each other, chatted briefly every now and again, and appreciated each other's company.

A few minutes before the lunch bell rang, the boys got up from their positions and went inside. Shino turned into the classroom, and Naruto went to the Boy's Restroom. A little while later the first lunch bell rang, and he came out and headed to class. He was a few doors down and had to pass through a doorway before he could get to his classroom, but standing around the doorway were a couple of older students.

One of the students looked at him. "Hey kid, what's with the mask?"

"None of your business. Move."

Another smirked. "Now that wasn't very nice. I think you should apologize."

Naruto stared at the older boys. "I have nothing to apologize for. Now move." It was then that one of the students went to grab the younger boy. Naruto jumped backwards and pointed both arms at the group, and gave them a face full of the 'Sleeping Neurotoxin' as he dubbed the red-spider venom. The group of boys seemed to stop and waver for a second, and then one-by-one, they fell onto the ground asleep. Now by this time, a small group of other students had gathered on both sides of the doorway to see what was going on, and witnessed the older boys go down.

'Told them to move... idiots.'

After casually walking over their bodies, Naruto left behind a group of shocked students and sat down at his usual seat in the back of the room. After a few minutes, the lunch bell rang a second time, signaling the start of class, and Ryoushi walked in looking a bit perplexed.

"Does anyone know why there is a group of boys snoring out in the hallway?" The room was filled with complete and total silence, as no one who saw the event wanted to speak out against the strange student in the back. "Okay then... on with the lesson I guess."

_Flashback End_

After that event, a lot of students, even older ones, steered clear of Naruto as much as possible.

Though the Academy wasn't all bad for the boy, he did have some fond memories of when he would play a prank on the class. While some might say he had a warped sense of humor, he didn't care, as long as he enjoyed himself.

One such prank was when, about two months into the year, he snuck some harmless garden snakes into the school. As it was still early in the morning, and hardly anyone else was there, he hid them around. Later that day, random students and Academy personnel started to find the snakes, resulting in mass pandemonium for the entire school. The instructors spent a good hour trying to calm the students down, and even had to call in a few ninja to put sleeping genjutsu on students that were panicking. The principal attempted to restore order, so that he could have the scaly-green animals safely removed, but ended up just calling lunch early and sent everyone scurrying out of the building. Naruto was snickering the whole time as he calmly ambled off, so he got some glares from a few random teachers, some of which had snakes wrapped around their arms and hands.

Definitely a normal sense of humor, right?

How Naruto got his kicks aside, and outside of school, he was still relatively productive. Even though he had less time than before, he was still working just as hard, if not harder, on his chakra control, exercising, taijutsu, weapon proficiency, and his jutsu repertoire. About half way through the year, he had finally mastered the Second Skin Exercise, which meant that he finally had enough chakra control to be able to handle his massive reserves with relative ease. So he could finally perform the **Clone Technique**.

This also opened up the entire world of genjutsu to him, and since he had no lack of imagination, he began to experiment with different illusions. His favorite so far, was one he found with his stash of Ame scrolls: the **Sly Mind Affect Technique**. He even got to test it out on some unsuspecting students, and made them walk into the wrong classrooms, or even the incorrect bathroom (resulting in some boys getting screamed at as they ran out of the Girl's Bathroom). By the end of the year, he could perform the technique with only one hand seal, and was working on being able to do it with none.

His **Mist Servant Technique** was now completely mastered as was **Violent Stream**. **Fire Release: Grand Fireball** still required 3 hand seals, but he hadn't been working on it as much.

A few months before the end of the year, Naruto had gotten his hands on a piece of chakra paper, and found his affinities to be wind and water. So, he began to practice things such as cutting and soaking leaves with just his chakra. It was slow going, but he was determined to be able to master both of his affinities within, at most, two years.

By the start of the next school year, Naruto had grown to a respectable height of 3 feet 10 inches tall, so he was one of the taller second year students.

OOOOO

Stepping into a new classroom, he spotted his second year teacher.

"Hello there, please take a seat."

'Hopefully this year will be more interesting than the last.'

OOOOO

**Boom! Done with my second chapter! AW YEAH! Someone give me a high-five... Anyone? No? Darn... Well anyways, there you have it: the second chapter of Naruto of the Acid Rain. Hope you enjoyed it!**

**Please remember to REVIEW****for me, and tell me what I did right and what I did wrong. Just think about it, you tell me a few things you noticed while reading, and then next chapter my writing will be even better! Meaning that YOU the reader will enjoy the chapter even more! It's a win-win for everyone!**

**Note on the Upcoming Chapters: **

**For those that were going to ask, no I will not be going through all six years of the academy one chapter at a time. That would be tedious, and lets face it, very boring for the readers and even myself. I will be including significant events that happened during those years in the next chapter or two, but I will mostly be skipping by those years, and straight into the fun of being a genin! :D**

**Other Note on the Upcoming Chapters:**

**I've been thinking about the next few chapters and as of now I'm going to write some 'extra' missions ****(which I will make important to my story and plot development) **and the like besides what happened in canon. I mean, most people would agree that reading about just the wave mission, then the chuunin exams, gets boring after a while, since there is only so much variance an author can put into those events. I will still be adding them in, but there will be a lot of other events in-between them.

**Here's a list of descriptions for the jutsu listed in this chapter.**

**Kawarimi (E-rank): **(Taken from a Naruto Wiki) With this technique, users replace their own body with some other object, generally with a block of wood, the moment an attack lands. This creates an optical illusion, making the enemy think the attack was successful.

**Henge (E-rank): **(Taken from a Naruto Wiki) It is used to change into people other than oneself, but one also has the ability to change into animals, plants, and even inanimate objects like weapons. (I've added) This technique is merely an illusion, and will be dispelled with the slightest punch or pressure, making it impractical in some instances.

**Solid Henge (B-rank): **(My own explanation/technique) This is a 'solid' variation of the Henge technique. This means that the user can transform himself into an object, and then takes on the properties of said object. Such as, one person can **Solid Henge** into a kunai, then be used by another person as an actual kunai.

**Fire Release: Grand Fireball (C-rank):** (Taken from a Naruto Wiki) A technique where chakra kneaded inside the body is converted into fire, and expelled from the mouth either as a massive orb of roaring flame or as a continuous flame-thrower. The scope of the attack is altered by controlling the volume of chakra that is mustered.

**Mist Servant Technique (D-rank):** (Taken from a Naruto Wiki) This genjutsu creates eerie black ninja illusions, which appear one by one from trees and rocks, and corner the enemy. Their movements are slow, but when attacked they multiply, and in this way they appear like ghosts inhabiting the mist.

**Sly Mind Affect Technique (C-rank):** (Taken from a Naruto Wiki) This technique allows the user to change the enemies sense of direction as they see fit.

**Violent Stream (C-rank):** (My own explanation/technique) The user builds up chakra in their body, and then releases it in the form of a continuous stream of water out of the mouth. The power of this stream can be light enough to water plants, and powerful enough to cut through the ground, depending on how much chakra is used.

**Clone Technique (E-rank):** (Taken from a Naruto Wiki) A ninjutsu that creates an intangible copy of one's own body, without any substance. Since the clone itself doesn't have the ability to attack, and thus can only be used to confuse the enemy, it is mainly used in combination with other ninjutsu.

**Looking for Betas! PM me if interested **

**Adios Amigos!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Greetings good people of the planet called Earth! My name is Tomaxor and I come in Peace!... maybe.**

**I hope you all had an awesome New Years! And that you made some resolutions that are way too difficult to achieve and will probably get broken within a week or two! I know I did! :D**

_**Attention Readers:**_

_**Writer's Block is a Bitch!**_

_**That will be all.**_

**Note: New and Improved!**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto. Bought some cookies last night, so I do own those.

**Enjoy!**

OOOOO

Over the next 3 years, things went pretty well for the blonde-haired boy. He had used his skills as a developing ninja, and liberal use of Killing Intent, to make the civilian population stay out of his way. And his relationship with Anko had evolved to a close friend type of bond. As it turns out, the Hokage was right. All it took was one Naruto Uzumaki and Anko could be happy once again.

"Hey girls!" Anko smiled as she waved to her collection of friends. The others, consisting Yuugao Uzuki, Hana Inuzuka, and Kurenai Yuuhi, all waved back from their positions around the table. Anko sat down, and then ordered her usual drink.

"You seem to be in a chipper mood today." Hana commented.

"Naruto has really been progressing with his training, it's going great." she responded. All of the other women nodded in understanding.

Ever since Anko had met Naruto, they had noticed that she was much happier, and her smiles were always more genuine. Over the years she had been using her 'psycho snake-lady' act less and less. Naruto seemed to fill the hole that had been in her heart. The one that had been there ever since Orochimaru had _cursed _her with the Curse Seal of Heaven.

The blond boy took the place of someone that she could be close to, and care for as family. He was a person that knew what she had gone through, and still loved her. He had given her so much joy ever since he had come into her life.

"So how is he doing overall?" Yuugao questioned.

Anko took a sip from her cup and leaned back. "He's doing pretty well I would say. A bit more serious than he was when I first met him, but he's still got a pretty good sense of humor. He still has his weird obsession with fear, and has a few other weird quirks. But I love him anyways." her smile turned devious. "So Hana, I hear you have a new boyfriend?"

Hana blushed and tried in vain to cover up her discomfort while the others laughed. The girls continued to talk and drink for the rest of the night.

OOOOO

As far as the specifics of Naruto's training goes, he had mastered the leaf slicing and soaking exercise and moved onto the next level of each exercise. His skills with elemental chakra were still relatively mediocre, but he was improving daily. Through the use of water and wind manipulation he could now start moving and expanding gas and mist clouds at will, though it was still a work in progress. He also had recently mastered two new jutsu, **Water Release: Gunshot** and **Wind Release: Great Breakthrough**.

Finally, in the category of genjutsu, Naruto had been focusing on creating his own set of unique illusions under the title of **Demented Illusions**. He had an idea of what he wanted the jutsu to do, but since he didn't have a genjutsu instructor, his progress was somewhat slow. With Anko as a willing test subject though, he was able to get a lot of the basics down.

_Flashback_

Anko stood across from Naruto in a clearing in the forest.

She motioned for him to start. After a set of hand seals, her world morphed slightly and the Naruto in front of her changed to be holding a sign with the number 3 on it. She changed the flow of her chakra, and the 3 swirled into a 1. The world around her was slightly distorted at this point, and it was obvious she was in a genjutsu. She dispelled the genjutsu one more time and the genjutsu disappeared.

"Two layers, the sign had a 3 on it, then I dispelled that layer and it changed to a 1. The second layer was messed up though, very obvious." she commented.

Naruto let out a sigh. "Well, that is an improvement at least, couldn't even get any layers at all a while ago. But, how the hell did it go from the third layer to the first?" he pondered.

Anko shrugged. "Don't know, never been very good with genjutsu, myself. You sure you don't want me to get some proper training for you? Like a mentor? These scrolls can only help you so much."

He shook his head. "No, I want to learn this myself. Once I figure it out, I will have a much deeper understanding of genjutsu, than someone who was told how to do it." His friend nodded her head and then pulled out a kunai.

"Now then, let's practice some more dodging today." Naruto grimaced and got into his stance.

_Flashback end_

Naruto has improved since that day, and could get 2 solid layers by now. His work was still ongoing though. His ultimate goal was to get 5 layers for his genjutsu, so as to make his victim think they were truly trapped inside his genjutsu, but that would take time.

OOOOO

THUNK!

A man with short black hair looked down at his clipboard. "Tsk, that was barely on target. Two points off."

Naruto had to resist the urge to stab the man in the throat. 'Son of a... The kunai was so poorly weighted no one could throw it on target, jackass. You know what? Fuck this! There's no way I'm putting up with this all year.' He slowly walked away, plotting his revenge. 'I've been through 5 years of this school, and maintained fine grades throughout. Now one bigoted teacher is going to make me tank. Now... how to fix that.'

OOOOO

Taiko, Naruto's chuunin instructor, was walking along the dark streets after a night of drinking with his friends. He sipped on a bottle of sake he still had in his hand. Suddenly, he started to cough violently. The world around him began to change and become even darker. He dropped the bottle and spilled its contents on the ground. Blood started coming out of his mouth, and suddenly he felt extremely weak. He fell onto his side.

A figure appeared in front of him. In desperation he reached out and grabbed the ankle of the figure, but his hand simply went through it. He looked up to see a shadowy figure staring down at him. All he could see was black and he could swear there were black tendrils coming off it. The only visible facial feature was the eyes, which were bright red and seemed to be staring into his very soul. He felt very small and helpless as he looked back.

The figure chuckled. Its voice sounded deep and demonic. "You do not deserve the students you were given to teach. Resign from your position, or I will kill you." This statement struck fear into the chuunin, as the figure looked like an evil spirit put on this world to simply carry out Shinigami's demands. Taiko's vision was blurring, and he was prepared to do anything to live.

"Ye-e-es!" he croaked out. "P-please do-on't-t kill me!" The figure chuckled some more and sprayed him in the face with a strange gas. Taiko felt extremely sleepy moments later and was soon unconscious.

'So easy.' Naruto thought. 'Just some poison to disorient him, a little Killing Intent, and finally some genjutsu to add to the effect. With just those three, he's no longer a ninja, but a scared little child. Well... the alcohol probably helped a little too. Ah well, fear is fear, intoxicated or not.' He reached into his jacket and pulled out a folded note. Bending down he placed the note into one of Taiko's pockets. After he was done, a mist surrounded his body, and he faded from view.

Minutes later, a random citizen would come upon the unconscious form of the chuunin. Noticing the blood he quickly took him to the hospital, where they found that he had a poison in his system, and removed it via medic jutsu.

A day later, the man awoke. The first thing he did was quit his teaching job, fearing the retribution of the demon that he had provoked. He had never before felt such dread as when he looked upon that apparition, and he never wanted to feel it again.

After another day and a new teacher was assigned to Naruto's class. This instructor gave a test out his first day, to determine how the students were doing in his own opinion. As he gave Naruto his test, the boy noticed that it was much more difficult than the others.

'I guess this instructor will have to go too, hope the next guy is better.' Naruto thought. He shrugged and began to fill out his test.

OOOOO

A few weeks later, Naruto was walking around Konoha in the early morning. He took great satisfaction that the glares and sneers were all but non-existent now. Since he had developed quite a reputation within the Hidden Leaf, most people realized that angering him would likely send them to the ER, or the mental hospital. So, most people tried to avoid looking at him altogether.

As he rounded a corner, someone bumped into him. He muttered something unintelligible and tried to keep walking, but a hand grabbed his arm. He turned to glare at whoever happened to be touching him, but saw one of his favorite people.

"Hey there Naruto-kun, where are you off to?" Ayame said.

Naruto replied in a mildly cheerful tone. "Hello Ayame, just wandering around. How are you?"

"I'm doing well. I'm just going for a walk too; would you care to join me?" Naruto thought about what he had to do that day, and concluded that he didn't have any pressing matters.

He nodded. "Sure." They walked off and meandered their way through Konoha. Naruto enjoyed spending time with one of the only people that he considered a friend, and was in good spirits. Eventually they ended up in a secluded area in the middle of a random park area. Ayame stopped and sat down by a tree, and Naruto joined her. If he had been paying more attention and had been using his wind mastery to sense the area around him, he would have noticed that there were actually some ROOT ninja hiding in various spots around the area. After a minute of small talk, a lone figure walked up to them. Naruto was immediately on guard.

"Who are you?" he demanded

The figure had on an ANBU mask that he didn't recognize, black pants and shirt, and had a tanto strapped to its back. The stance was very rigid and almost mechanical in nature.

He stood up and readied himself for the inevitable battle. He glared at his friend.

"Naruto, calm down. These people just want to talk to you." Ayame tried to explain the situation to him.

The figure spoke up. "Ayame Ichiraku, your services are no longer required. Your payment has already been placed into your account. Please leave the area." The voice was male, Naruto noted, and even more monotone than Shino's.

The figure then took a step forward. "Naruto Uzumaki, you are to come with me."

Naruto sent his reply in the form of a kunai. The ANBU took action and sent a return volley of his own, but Naruto managed to roll slightly and take only one in the shoulder.

Ayame looked distraught. "You said you wouldn't hurt him!" she yelled. One of the ROOT ANBU appeared behind her and chopped her in the neck. He grabbed her body, and **shunshined** away.

Naruto had to bite down on his tongue to resist yelling out in pain. He quickly threw down smoke grenades in order to give himself some time to create a mist surrounding the area. The visibility in the area quickly went down to almost 0, just the way Naruto fought. Luckily for him, Danzo's ROOT agents had not been able to watch him training very often, as he only did in the Forest of Death, and knew very little about his fighting style. In fact, they had knew almost nothing about his jutsu, and came completely unprepared for what was about to happen. These ROOT were about a chuunin equivalent, and though had been trained to fight in total darkness, they now had no sound to rely on, as the chakra-infused mist muffled all noise.

'I can sense 5 total ANBU. 2 above in the trees to my left, 2 more on the right, and one in front of me. I'll take the one out first.' He quickly made a couple hundred **Poison Cloud Clones**, and **Mist Servants**. Spreading them out, he had them each go off in groups to attack and confuse the other ROOT. Naruto's main goal was to keep them from performing any jutsu, tire and irritate them with his clones, and finally finish them off one by one. He had to be extra carful now since one of his shoulders was bleeding and his arm was difficult to move.

One of his **Poison Cloud Clones** approached the solo ROOT and made it like he was attempting to thrust a kunai in his back, but his opponent ducked and, in one fluid motion, unsheathed the tanto on his back, and spun around to stab the clone in the stomach. The clone quickly dispersed into the deadly gas, and the man got a face full of the venom. He immediately began to cough violently and blood started dripping of the bottom of his mask, pooling at his feet. His legs wavered, and then he fell onto his back, never to rise again.

Elsewhere, the other clones were not having as much luck. As it turns out, even though he was able to separate the groups, the groups of two were able to stay together. They were very good and covering each others backs in the fog, and kept the continuous assault of kunai and senbon at bay. After a brief stalemate there was a lapse in Naruto's assault, the ROOT member went through some hand seals. He then pushed his hands out and a gust of wind blew through the area. Unfortunately for him, Naruto was good enough with his own wind chakra that while it did make the visibility increase slightly, most of the fog was still in place. As he finished blocking the technique, one of Naruto's solid clones jumped down from one of the branches and slashed downwards at the man's exposed wrists.

One hand fell to the ground, while the other hung limply, almost completely severed. His partner caught the clone in the throat with his tanto, dispelling it.

From his hiding spot, Naruto felt the action, and threw out a barrage of poisoned senbon towards the man. A few managed to hit areas not protected by armor, and one even pierced his throat, ending his life. He felt kunai coming his way, and **Kawarimied** with a random clone that was on the ground near the now partner-less man. He jumped up, and slapped an explosive note on the branch, then **Kawarimied** with another clone that was high up in the branches.

The ROOT member abandoned his dead comrade and jumped off the exploding branch, and began to go through some hand seals. He was nearing the end of his sequence, when Naruto jumped down onto the man with his hidden blade one his good arm extended. He proceeded to shove the blade into one of the eye-holes of the man's mask. The action shattered the mask, and caused the man to illicit an "Augh!" while they plummeted to the ground.

Naruto was crouching on the ROOT member's chest with his blade still positioned in his eye when they hit the ground. The force of the impact shoved his blades even farther into his opponent's skull, killing him. As soon as he got up, he had to roll to the side to avoid a stone spear that had jut out of the ground directly below him.

He kept rolling and dodging to avoid the spears, and he finally was able to get his feet under him and jump onto a nearby branch.

'I remember one was killed by another **Poison Cloud Clone**, but the last one must have gone underground, I don't feel him anymore... or did he leave?' His question was answered when he heard a sizzling next to him.

BOOM!

The force of the explosion pushed him hard into a nearby tree. Hitting his back, he heard a crack, and felt a piece of branch go through his side. 'Fuck!' he thought as he landed face down onto the ground. He grunted as he tried to push himself up with his good arm, but that was proving too difficult and he fell back down.

He felt someone emerge from the ground next to him, and raise an arm. He quickly rolled to the side and then shot a senbon at his attacker. The man knocked it off course and jumped forward in hopes of stabbing the boy. Naruto had just enough time to switch places with one of his final clones, and fell to the ground a few feet away. The man stabbed the clone and watched as it split and became murky.

That was almost enough to make the emotionless man scream out a profanity.

Almost.

The gas-masked boy was getting extremely tired by this point. He had been stabbed in the shoulder, keeping up his **Cloud Manipulation** for the past 10 minutes straight, had made at least 100 clones of all types, and had also been nearly blown apart by an explosive note, resulting in getting stabbed again, this time in the side.

'I need to end this now.' he thought as he rose to his feet. He created one more clone and **Henged** himself into a kunai. The mist was now thin enough to where the man could see the clone take off in an attempt to run away. He took off in pursuit and didn't notice when was coming up upon a kunai on the ground.

POOF

SQUELCH

The man fell forward onto Naruto's blade, dead.

Naruto rolled the man off him, and then fully stood up and released his jutsu. 'What the fuck!? Can I trust no one in this village?!' He threw a few kunai at a tree in frustration and confusion, and then staggered briefly. A moment later he blacked out from exhaustion, and fell to the ground.

After a few minutes later, he shakily got up again, dusted himself off, and limped home.

'I need to find out who they were, as I'm sure that won't be the last I hear from them.' He mused.

OOOOO

"It appears that squad 15 has failed Danzo-sama. We found their corpses 10 minutes ago around the ambush area." a kneeling figure stated.

Danzo's lone eye narrowed. 'How did he manage to defeat a whole squad on his own? He isn't even a genin yet... He is even more of a hazard than I thought.' he grimaced. 'Now he will be on guard though and much more prepared for another ambush. This complicates things.'

"How did they die?"

"Two died of asphyxiation through the use of some unidentified gas. The others died of stab wounds. There was an unknown poison located around each wound, but it appears that it did not have enough time to affect them, as the punctures ruptured organs."

"Have the bodies moved to our research labs, and move a team to start developing antidotes for the toxins found on the corpses. Report to me when they are finished." The man muttered a "Hai" and left.

Danzo got up from his chair and walked out of his office. 'This is a minor setback, but the plan cannot fail. I will _not_ have this boy ruining my plans for Konoha. Only I can lead us to greatness.'

OOOOO

"Naruto!" Ayame called out as she ran up to him. It was the next day and Naruto was coming back from class.

He turned to glare at her, and unsheathed a hidden blade slightly, ready to strike. "Do not come near me." His voice could have frozen water.

The girl's eyes began to well with tears. "I'm so sorry. They told me they were going to _help_ you! Not try and kill you... Please believe me!" she begged.

Naruto shook his head. "You have broken my trust. If you endanger either myself, or any of my friends (that ever so small list) again, I will kill you myself." A bit of Killing Intent was leaking out to prove his point. He walked past her and didn't look back at the sobbing girl.

OOOOO

Naruto wasn't quite the same after the incident with Ayame, especially since he refused to ever go back to Ichiraku's, or explain why, much to the confusion of Anko. Eventually she went to Ichiraku's by herself and found Ayame. The girl told her how she was approached and asked to lead Naruto to a park where he could be 'talked to.' Anko wondered how the girl could be so naïve as to think that they would just want to 'talk' to him in the middle of a secluded forest, but didn't push it. The kunoichi promised that she would talk to Naruto for Ayame, and left. She immediately went to the Hokage's office and told him all that she had learned. The Hokage told her that he would look into it, but that Danzo was very good at covering his tracks with this sort of thing. Anko thanked him and left to talk to Naruto.

"Naruto, why didn't you tell me about getting attacked?" she asked.

The boy shrugged. "I felt it was my problem to deal with."

Anko nearly face palmed. "Getting attacked by ROOT is not something you should be dealing with on your own." She admonished.

"I survived. All the training you've had me go through, plus the jutsu I learned from the Ame scrolls helped me wipe the floor with them."

Anko developed a bit of a smirk, and then smacked his shoulder. "It should have! No one taught by me is allowed to be beaten by a bunch of lackeys. But please let me know next time, this sort of thing isn't good. And we will be upping your training even more now." Then she remembered something and frowned.

"Are you sure you cannot forgive Ayame? She sounded truly apologetic, and like she didn't know what was going on, even if it's hard to believe."

Naruto pulled away and shook his head. "I cannot trust her anymore, just shows me that I will have to be on guard more." Anko agreed that it would be smart to have him more prepared, but was concerned what constant alertness would have on him. She would have to make sure that he could still relax and have fun so he wouldn't develop any more _quirks_.

OOOOO

Months later, Naruto was walking around Konoha at night, as he often found the stars and quietness relaxing. With the more rigorous training, he had improved greatly and finally gotten a breakthrough with his genjutsu, and had completed one **Demented Illusion**.

He had just rounded a corner, when he heard a muffled scream and the sound of cloth tearing. His brain now working on overdrive, and his heart-rate picking up speed, he took off in search of the source of the sound. Rounding another corner and looking down an alley, he saw two dark figures, one laying on the ground and the other bent over the first. Upon closer inspection, he saw that the person on the ground was a gagged woman. Her shirt and pants had been torn off, leaving her in only a bra and panties. The second figure turned out to be a man, short cut brown hair, with scruff around his chin. He was wearing a dark shirt, with black cargo pants and black sandals. The man was a chuunin by the name of Gorou Haraki, who had been working on subduing the woman so he could get the rest of her clothes off.

As soon as Naruto had spotted the two individuals, and they in-turn noticed him, all three froze. The woman had tears running down her face and sent a pleading look Naruto's way, while the man sneered.

"Get out of here freak, this ain't none of your business." sounding somewhat inebriated.

Naruto stood stock-still for another few seconds, and then his breath hitched when he looked at the woman again.

'Anko.'

Seeing his best friend, his savior, getting attacked and raped by this man sent Naruto over the edge. His eyes behind his mask began to glow red, and his breathing got heavier.

"You! How dare you! I WILL KILL YOU!" Naruto screamed. Darting forward, he jumped over the man and kicked him in the back of the head, knocking him away from the woman. After landing, he pulled out a set of senbon and threw them. The chuunin had broken out of his stunned state and clumsily dodged and blocked the senbon with his own kunai. Naruto began walking forward, out of the alleyway and towards the man, all the while throwing a seemingly endless supply of weapons, some even with explosive tags attached.

Gorou was now getting serious and after slamming his hands into the ground called out, "**Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall**!" A wall rose out of the ground and then shook as the notes exploded on the other side.

"Shit, this will attract too much attention; I've got to get out of here." The man said to himself. He took off in a sprint and tried to put as much distance between himself and the crime scene as possible. After running a few minutes, he noticed the road shimmer slightly, and realized he was in a genjutsu. "KAI!" Gorou shouted as he pulsed his chakra. The environment swirled and morphed into a forest.

Nearby, Naruto landed to the ground and began to go through some hand seals. "We're all alone now and you will feel true fear! **Demented Illusion: Infestation**!"

OOOOO

Gorou's world morphed and changed to a small metal cage with total darkness surrounding it. He looked around smirked.

'This is the lamest genjutsu I've ever seen. I'm in a cage, boo hoo.' "KAI!" he yelled, but nothing changed.

He was going to try again but he noticed something: his arms were starting to itch. Bringing them up, he inspected them. At first, he didn't see anything, but then his skin appeared to become bumpy and the itching became worse. The bumps got larger and started to writhe, and he started to get itching on other places in his body. Clawing at his left arm, he broke his skin open to reveal large maggots that were digging their way through his muscles and skin. They were a fleshy grey color, and all had tiny mouths everywhere on their body, filled with sharp teeth, and were using them to eat his flesh. Screaming, he attempted to dig the grubs out, piercing some with his fingernails, while others grabbed onto his hands and started to try cut through his skin. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw one break out of his right cheek. He screamed louder and grabbed the slimy larva and threw it onto the ground, only for more to take its place.

This went on for a few minutes, and eventually Gorou's mind was going into shock and was starting to shut down, but then his world became black, and he felt completely numb. Then cage appeared again. Breathing heavily, he looked down at his arms to see that they were bloody but free of the disgusting things.

Then he felt his stomach lurch and the skin around it become pock-marked with holes. From inside him came hundreds of spiders, each one skittering out of his stomach and onto his skin, their small hairy legs scratching against his flesh. Some began to bite him, while others jumped to different parts of his body. Gorou screamed again and began to claw at his mid-section, while rolling around on the cage floor.

OOOOO

Back in the real world, Naruto was watching as Gorou screamed and tore at his body. Feeling satisfaction that this man, this _monster_, would eventually make himself bleed out, he promised Anko that her attacker would be dead by morning.

The Third Hokage and a few ANBU landed around Naruto and took stock in the situation. What they saw made the less experienced ANBU shudder.

"Naruto," Sarutobi commanded. "Release this man from your jutsu."

Ignoring the order, Naruto continued to stare intently at the chuunin. "He's going to rape Anko, I can't let him do it. He must die in _fear_…" he muttered just loud enough for the Hokage and a few ANBU to hear. Grimacing, the old man walked up to the boy, placed him under a sleep-inducing jutsu, and caught him as he fell unconscious. The genjutsu was cancelled and Gorou fell to the ground mumbling incoherent words and frothing at the mouth.

"Take him to the hospital, and make sure he's got a guard at all times. I will handle Naruto." The third commanded. Jumping towards the Forest of Death Sarutobi cursed the situation that the boy had been put in, knowing it would probably make him even more unstable.

OOOOO

"Coming." Anko opened the door. "Hokage-sama!" She then noticed Naruto's unconscious form and sent an alarmed look towards the old man. "What happened?! Is he okay? Was it more ROOT?!"

Sarutobi sighed. "It was not ROOT, but there was an... incident. May I come in?"

"Yes, of course! I will take him." She grabbed Naruto and proceeded to take him into his room and lay him down on his bed. Closing the door, she took the Hokage into the dining room and sat down across from him.

"Earlier, Naruto came across a chuunin that was attempting to..." he paused briefly. "Rape a young woman in an alley. From what the victim told us; Naruto attacked the man and pursued him into a nearby forest. When my ANBU and I found him, Naruto had already been drawing upon the Kyuubi's chakra. He apparently had put the man under a rather disturbing genjutsu, as he was screaming and clawing at his own skin. It also seems that Naruto thought the young woman was you, and was going to keep the jutsu up until the attacker bled himself out."

Anko looked grim. Not only had a ninja of her home village attempted to rape a young woman, but Naruto had come upon the scene. While she was glad that he had saved the poor woman, she was worried about the lasting effects it would have on her friend.

"Well, I have to go. Good night, Ms. Mitarashi." The Hokage stood up and **Shunshinned **out of the home.

Anko went into Naruto's door, and peeked in. Seeing he was still out cold, she walked back to her room and laid on her bed, mind working over what she had just heard.

The next morning, she made sure to stay until the boy got up. After he left his room and saw Anko all of the memories flooded back. He was frantic for a moment, before the kunoichi calmed him down and explained that she was not the one who was attacked, and that he did manage to save the woman who was. She then told him to sit at the table while she made him some food. After a relatively silent breakfast she told him she was headed to the T&I building, and for him to take the day to relax. As she was getting coffee in the lounge at the building, she overheard a conversation between two chuunin.

"You hear what happened to Gorou?" one asked.

The other nodded. "Yeah, and I say he deserved it."

"Really? I mean, what he did was horrible, but to be reduced to a quivering mass for the rest of his life? That's pretty bad." he grimaced.

The second chuunin scoffed. "He tried to rape a woman! I think he's lucky to be alive, should just be executed right now, in my opinion."

Anko put two and two together, 'Must be the guy that Naruto put into a genjutsu, I need to go talk to Ibiki and see what I can find out.' She took her mug and walked out towards Ibiki's office. Knocking and then entering, she stood in front of his desk.

Ibiki looked up from a form he was filling out. "Anko, what brings you to my office today?"

She sat down in a chair, and looked solemn. "I wanted to ask about the recent rape incident. It involved a man by the name of Gorou, happened last night."

"Ah yes," he shuffled through some papers and pulled one out. "Gorou Haraki, accused of attempted rape, apprehended last night by ANBU. Has yet to be interrogated. Currently held in the psych wards, diagnosed by Yamanaka with panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, entomophobia, arachnophobia, delusional parasitosis, and a few other disorders. Dishonorably discharged from the Konohagakure Shinobi Force by order of Hokage." He put the sheet down. "I went and saw him just an hour ago, to see if I could get some answers out of him. But, from what I could tell, he wont be a functioning member of society any time soon, even if he gets out of life in prison." he snorted. "Hell, he doesn't even possess the ability to have his straight-jacket removed before he starts ripping at his arms and face screaming about worms and shit. So why did you want to know about the case?"

Anko sighed. "Naruto... witnessed the event and attacked Gorou. And Naruto was the one who put him into the state he's in now."

"Really?" he whistled. "That's... impressive actually. To be able to put a chuunin in the mental hospital and not even be a genin yet is very impressive indeed. That boy has some talent for genjutsu."

Anko's face turned very serious. "Ibiki, Naruto just saw an attempted rape, I'm worried for him. I know from past experiences that he has a strong mind, but this really seemed to affect him. I would try and counsel him, but I mostly know about how to break the mind, not put it back together again. Know any good psychiatrists?"

Ibiki stroked his chin for a moment. "You know, I think that the best option would be Dr. Yamra. He works with victims and family members of those that are affected by crimes such as rape; I think he should be able to help Naruto."

She rose and bowed slightly. "Thank you Ibiki." Then she turned and left the room.

OOOOO

Deep underneath Konoha, a lone eye peered down at the kneeling form of a man.

"Report." he ordered.

The man's response was crisp and was void of any emotion. "Danzo-sama, we have confirmed some of the details. Naruto Uzumaki, the jinchuuriki was involved in an attempted rape incident. He had come upon chuunin Gorou Haraki attacking a civilian woman. Uzumaki chased Haraki out into a nearby forest, where he put him under a genjutsu. From what is understood, the genjutsu made him believe that insects were coming out of his skin. This made Haraki attempt to dig the 'insects' out, injuring himself. This has also had an extreme effect on his mind, and he is currently held in the Psychiatric Ward in the Konoha Hospital." The man fell silent after his report.

Danzo closed his eye and stood for a moment, before turning around and slowly walking down the hallway. 'This would not have happened if my men could have captured him, but I cannot show my hand anymore, as Sarutobi is paying much more attention now. I will have to wait till the others can hold up their end of the deal.'

OOOOO

Elsewhere, in the Forest of Death, Naruto was currently having an argument with Anko.

"Naruto, I really think you should talk to a psychiatrist about what happened. It will help. Ibiki even recommended this guy." The kunoichi said.

He shook him head. "I'm fine... I'm okay, really."

"Naruto."

"No! I will not have some _doctor_ poke around in my mind and ask me 'How does that make you feel?' day after day." he bit back.

She finally gave up. "Okay... If you don't want to, I cannot make you." she patted her coat to check to see if she had her wallet. "How about we go get some food, get your mind off it?" The boy nodded.

After a relatively quiet dinner, they were walking home from dinner. It was late and the village night life was coming out.

"Anko!" someone yelled out. The pair turned around to see a chuunin running up to them. Anko seemed to recognize him as a friend, or at least acquaintance. "There you are! Me and some people are getting together tonight. Want to come?"

Anko smiled at the prospect of hanging out and probably drinking. "Sure!" Then she remembered her companion and turned to him. "Naruto-kun, are you going to be alright by yourself?"

He nodded, not wanting her to miss out on some fun because of him. She gave him a critical eye, then smiled and turned to the chuunin. "So who's coming?"

"We've got Kurenai coming, Hayate will probably show up, Genma, Izumo, and with him Kotetsu..." he continued listing people off as they walked away. He then snuck an arm around Anko's shoulder and she didn't seem to mind. Naruto knew that she knew how to handle herself, but he was much more paranoid now, and the incident with Gorou had left a deep scar on his mind.

At that moment, he twitched his arms, pulled out two poisoned kunai and prepared to throw. Then he stopped and clenched his teeth in anger. He fought with himself briefly, and then he shook his head and retracted the blades. As he turned back around, he noticed some people staring at him. He glared at them, let loose some KI and pulled the blades back out. The people quickly looked away and went back to their business, now remembering his reputation. Naruto growled and walked back home to get some rest.

"H-hello." A woman stopped in front of Naruto. He stayed silent, as he recognized her but couldn't place it. The woman had wavy auburn hair that shone in the evening sun. Her face was nice, but relatively plain. She appeared to be about 5 foot 8 inches, and wore a beige shirt with dark brown pants. She smiled weakly. "I'm sorry, let me introduce myself. My name is Kushura. I just wanted to say... thank so much!" she blurted out as he grabbed him in a fierce hug.

Naruto was completely shocked, and had to resist slitting her throat right then. He was extremely mistrustful nowadays, and no one touched him _ever_, expect Anko. She eventually released him and his brain made the connection; this was the woman that he had prevented from getting raped.

"You're welcome." he managed to get out.

She let a tear flow down her cheek as she smiled at him. She tried to see into his mask, to find a heroic boy that had saved her, but she couldn't seem to find any warmth in that mask. The eye pieces looked dead and lifeless one moment, but then appeared to glint with a strange sense of mania the next. The word FEAR written on his forehead didn't help him appear any friendlier either.

"Other people fear you," she began hesitantly, but her confidence grew. "but I don't agree with them! You wouldn't have saved me if you weren't a decent person. I _know_ you are a good person!"

"Kind words," he chuckled dryly. "But sometimes you need to listen to others." he stated and walked away leaving a confused woman.

'What?' she thought to herself. 'How could he want that?' But she refused to see him as someone to be feared. She knew he had decency in him, even if he couldn't see it. Someday he would prove her right, she just knew it...

OOOOO

The next couple weeks proved to be extremely difficult for the boy. Anko had to leave on an emergency high ranking mission, and was going to be gone for an unspecified amount of time.

Alone, Naruto spent his days and nights, going over what had recently happened, and his past. All of those depressing years when he was younger: first, the orphanage where he was picked on and bullied. Then, that horrible life on the streets trying to scrounge for food out of trash bins, and avoiding random drunks. Then, that would inevitably take him to his favorite person in the world, that beautiful purple-haired girl that saved him. His face would break into a small smile when he thought of how she turned his life around.

But then... he would think about that night when he found Gorou attacking a woman, who he had believed was Anko. When he remembered seeing her beaten up and crying on the ground, he got a terrible feeling in his gut. His muscles would tense and he could almost feel fire coursing through his veins. He loved and despised that feeling.

When he would remember that night, he just felt like crushing something. He wanted to punch the wall, or pick up his desk and throw it through his window. He would often end up pacing around the room in the middle of the night, arguing with himself over whether or not he should go find Gorou and kill him, just to finish what he started. Sometimes he felt like that would help him, but then he would argue that maybe it wouldlead him down a darker path; a path where he could accidentally hurt Anko.

He would also think about how he couldn't even trust seemingly anyone anymore. One of his closest friends, the girl that always smiled at him and talked to him about anything while he ate his favorite meal, had betrayed him. She had sold him out, and had almost gotten him killed. His already small number of people he could trust was dwindling. He wanted to believe that she really didn't know what was going on, but then he would argue that she was only apologizing to cover her own ass since he actually survived the attack. He couldn't figure out if that was true or not, but he knew that the event had proven he was too trusting still.

If he had been on guard he could have avoided getting stabbed in the shoulder, and probably the fight altogether, or at least not walked directly into a trap. But he had been distracted by enjoying his time with Ayame, and had paid the price. His wounds reminded him that now he would have to be constantly aware of his surroundings. Always alert.

He couldn't stand it, the constant thoughts streaming through his mind. It drove him mad, confused him, and made him feel helpless. He had gotten little to eat over that two weeks, and he slept even less. He couldn't focus at all and as a result his studies taking a turn for the worse. He would take his scrolls and sit down in an attempt to read, but he would get sidetracked immediately. It was as if his mind was incapable of focusing on anything but his past, or his anger. He just didn't want to do _anything_, but he also wanted to just go out and blow something to smithereens.

Soon enough, his thoughts started to become even more erratic and disturbing. Finally, after two mentally and emotionally draining weeks, he decided that he needed a distraction, before he killed himself or someone else. So, he simply walked out the door with the intent to find _something_ to distract him.

As he was running along the forest floor he heard a loud growl coming from beside him. The gas masked boy turned to see a large lion barring its teeth at him. He snarled back and pulled out two plain kunai, forgoing his usual poisoned blades.

After a brief tussle with the beast, Naruto managed to cut the lion up so much that it finally collapsed from blood loss. The boy was thoroughly soaked in the red liquid, and was dripping in some places. He wiped blood-splattered fingers over his eye pieces to try and clear them, but only managed to smudge them even worse. He chuckled and flopped down on the ground.

'I don't remember a fight ever being so fun!' his smile took on a more psychotic appearance. 'I... I don't even remember why I was angry!' His body shook as he chuckled some more and got up to search for more prey.

It was strange, but he now realized that his was mind crystal clear when he was dueling to the death. It seemed as though battle helped him focus, even back when he was getting attacked by the ROOT ANBU, he was relatively calm. The power to kill a living being was something he found disturbingly soothing.

After spending hours in the forest, massacring everything around him, he could finally think again! He could put his mind in order again, to logically go over what he needed to do that day, or focus on his schoolwork. It was a glorious feeling! There was... _something_ about ending a life, something in the blood that drained and the organs that spilled onto the ground, that put his thoughts to rest.

He could finally sleep, at least for a little while.

OOOOO

A few days later, Anko returned and then noticed that Naruto was leaving at random times and coming back much later smelling of blood each time. She knew that he sometimes trained by attacking things in the forest, and often sold the pelts for money, but something was off. She even tried to stop him one time and ask where he was going, but he became very irritable. After following him, she witnessed his brutal and seemingly psychotic episodes of killing. Afterwards she immediately took him to the Hokage's office, where the two confronted him.

The Hokage got right to the point and stated that he thought it wasn't good for him to be spending hours in the forest alone, and that they thought he would get injured. Naruto argued that he had been doing the same thing for years, just now he was no longer doing it to collect the furs of animals, but Anko insisted that he would eventually get hurt and maybe even killed. Sarutobi then stated that it wasn't good for his mental health to be killing so much at his age, even if it was just animals and insects, but Naruto argued that killing was part of being a shinobi.

Sarutobi had finally put his foot down and given then him an ultimatum, see a psychiatrist for the next 6 months, or immediately put a stop to his killing. Naruto instantly went with the second option, since he hated the idea of having to go every week to see someone who would probe his brain. Anko was happy that he agreed, and took him out to ramen afterwards.

For the few days, he seemed to be okay, and he thought that maybe, just _maybe_ he might not need his 'hobby' after all, but what had happened had left a deep scar on his mind. Soon enough, his insomnia set back in, and his focus dropped to zero. Soon, Naruto realized that he _needed_ to kill, and that this time, Anko and the Hokage were wrong.

So one night he quietly crept out of his home again. (One would think that Anko could catch him, but his stealth expertise was good enough to put some ANBU to shame. He had always been good, since he had been living on the streets, and now training with Anko had increased his expertise tenfold. He was but a shadow to those around him.)

He shivered in anticipation as he jumped from branch to branch. His mouth twisted into a smile and he chuckled with bizarre mirth.

He stopped on a random branch and looked down at the forest floor. His eyes scanned the ground, and after a few seconds he spotted a large bear (about the size of an SUV) wandering around searching for food. He pulled out a kunai with his left hand and raised it in front of his right hand. Releasing a valve inside his jacket, he let loose a spray of a purple-ish color mist, and coated the blade in venom.

'It's just such a simple process.' he mused. 'Just put just a little pressure on a kunai as it's held against flesh. Just that and I can rupture organs, and fill arteries with toxin. So simple...'

He then began to focus on turning the air around the bear into a dense fog. After a few seconds, he could no longer see the ground 40 feet below him, but he could 'feel' everything.

Taking a deep breath, he jumped down.

OOOOO

_Omake_

_The Day without His Mask_

Naruto was wandering around in Konoha in the early morning. He was fairly bored, as there was no class today, Anko was out on a mission, and he just didn't feel like training today. As he walked, he noticed some of the shops opening up, and then something clicked in his mind.

'With this mask... I haven't been able to smell... anything at all in the past few years. Come to think of it, I kind of miss the smells of food and the forest.' It was then that he knew what he was going to do that day. Quickly scampering home, he removed his mask and began to suck in air through his nose. He noted his own room smelled like metal, poisonous fluids, and what reminded him of the woods. He also smelt a hint of blood on all of his clothing, but he just shrugged that off as expected. As soon as he left his room, he was hit with a barrage of new smells, some he recognized and others he did not. He sniffed his way into the kitchen and began to inhale the air surrounding various cabinets full of food.

'Aw man! I have been missing out on a lot!' he thought with glee as he grabbed some bacon and threw it in a pan to cook. After a few seconds the delicious smell of bacon filled his nostrils, and he was sure he was in heaven. After clearing the house out of bacon, he decided to leave to see what else he could smell. As he went into the hallway, another smell caught his nose.

'Wow that smells good! What is it though?' he pondered as he used his nose to find the source. He then noticed that it was emanating from Anko's room. Looking around to make sure there was no one there (paranoid much?), he slowly approached the door. He grabbed the handle, and pushed it slightly open. The scent hit him full force, and he smiled dreamily.

Sucking in as much of the aroma as he could, he contemplated what it was. 'Makes me think of... flowers. And maybe a dash of apple too? Whatever it is, I like it!' he considered simply standing at the doorway all day, taking in this glorious smell, but decided that there was a whole village of smells that he could find. Closing the door, he quickly put up a **Henge** that made him look like some average citizen, and rushed out of the house.

As he was traveling through the forest, he was nearly suffocated with the new aroma. It was a very good smell in his opinion, the tang of the trees, and the other plant life, but a little overbearing to his nose.

After about 30 minutes of traveling (he knew some of the easiest and fastest ways out of the forest) he jumped over the huge fence, and made his way to the market district. As he traveled, he tried to pick up as many smells as he could. First he passed a blacksmith, which made him think of coal, and burnt metal. Then he came to the market district.

People gave him weird looks as he passed, as he was sniffing the whole way, but he didn't care. He was able to exercise his nose once again, and was thoroughly enjoying himself. He went inside a bakery momentarily, and took in the heavenly smell of freshly baked bread. He stood there for a minute or so just taking it in, before he decided there was so much more he could smell.

Many hours later, Naruto was still sniffing his way around Konoha. This day made him truly question if he needed the mask after all, since he was clearly missing out on so much. His reasoning would soon be shattered completely.

As he was walking along, he had the urge to use the restroom, so he headed to the nearest restaurant, and went inside. As soon as he opened the door to, he was nearly knocked over with the stench that came from inside the room. He covered his nose and ran out of the building. He stopped on the side of the road, and put his hand on the wall, bent over and tried to prevent himself from throwing up.

'That was awful! I don't remember bathrooms smelling that bad!' he cringed as he thought about it again. 'I think I can hold it in for a while, and wait till I get home.'

He shook his head, and stood back up and walked away. He tried to forget about the disgusting odor, but it stuck with him. As he walked, he was so distracted that he wasn't looking where he was going, and got shoved into a nearby alley by accident. He stumbled briefly, then caught himself and looked around. He was hit full force by an awful aroma coming from a nearby dumpster, and this time he really did throw up.

'Dear God! What did they put in there? Rotting animals?' he thought as he wiped his mouth off and ran out of the alleyway. He blearily looked around and noticed that it was starting to get dark, and he was pretty tired from a day of... smelling all that Konoha had to offer. He began to job towards his destination, but to get there he had to go through an area that was known for its bars. As he went, he noticed the pungent aroma of alcohol start to fill his nostrils. He made a disgusted face, as he did not enjoy smelling the substance, especially when it filled the entire street. He was considering sprinting home immediately, but then passed a local flower shop. He smiled, thinking he had found sanctuary, but oh how he was wrong. As soon as he stepped inside his nose started to itch.

"Ah…Ah!... ACHOO!" he wiped his nose and then sneezed again. "ACHOO!" his sneezing was so violent that it was actually scaring the other people in the store. His face became red and his eyes became watery as he continued to sneeze.

'It's becoming nearly impossible to maintain the **Henge**, I've got to get out of here!"

After another 15 minutes of record setting sprinting, he was finally home. He ran to his room and slammed the door, as if the pollen and stench would chase him inside. He dashed over to where he had set down his mask and grabbed it. After he strapped on the protective head gear, there was an audible sigh of relief.

'Never again...' he vowed.

The next day in class, Naruto was sitting with his head in his hand as the teacher droned on. Then he noticed the other students around him start to make disgusted faces.

"Aw man! Choji!" Kiba exclaimed.

"EEWWW" some of the girls cried out.

Naruto's mouth contorted into a smirk, and then a full-blown smile.

'I love my mask.'

OOOOO

**Chapter numba' three is now done! Hope you relished in the beauty that is my writing! And no, I'm not egotistical, that would be below my status! ****Wow, the whole time that I was writing that genjutsu scene with Gorou, I was itching like crazy! Any of you feel itchy while you were reading? ****Anyways, don't you love how I screwed up Naruto's mind even more!? It's truly magnificent!**

**REVIEW please! Telling me specifically what I did right and wrong will help me write a better chapter next time.**

**Note:**

**Starting school soon, expect slower updates.**

**Here's a list of descriptions for the new jutsu listed in this chapter.**

**Cloud Manipulation (B-rank): **(My own explanation/technique) This is purely an advanced form of nature manipulation. The user focuses his chakra into forming a heavy mist around the area, and then uses wind manipulation to keep the fog from dispersing. This allows the user to reduce visibility to near zero, but also allows the user to sense everything around them with their now dispersed chakra. Finally, the mist is so infused with chakra that an experience user can even cloak his presence from any sensor ninja nearby, making him completely undetectable.

**Water Release: Gunshot (C-rank):** (Taken from a Naruto Wiki that I don't own) The user kneads chakra, and converts it into water, and then spits it out in the form of condensed balls. The high-speed water ball attack possesses just as much power to kill as an actual gunshot.

**Poison Cloud Clone (B-rank):** (My own explanation/technique) By molding a thin film of chakra around a cloud of poisonous gas, the user can then Henge the cloud into a clone. This can serve one of two purposes. The first is simply to add a diversionary clone, but the chief tactic is to get the opponent to attack this clone in close quarters. When hit, the chakra holding back the gas will disperse, likely causing the enemy to inhale some of it.

**Wind Release: Great Breakthrough (C-rank):** (Taken from a Naruto Wiki that I still don't own) This is a relatively simple technique that creates a sudden gust of wind, but its scale varies greatly depending on the user. If used by a superior shinobi, it has enough destructive power to knock down a large tree.

**Demented Illusion: Infestation (Kinjutsu-rank): **(My own explanation/technique) (I will add others in later chapters) A real-time genjutsu that was developed by Naruto himself. Cannot be broken by pain. By layering at least five layers of the jutsu, he makes it seem impossible to get out of. After the victim is placed under it, their world will fade to black, and they will be placed into a cage, 'restricting' their movement. After a few seconds, the person will start to feel uncomfortable, and then some form of insect (chiefly spiders, scorpions, grubs, and worms) will break out of their skin. This serves two purposes: to cause the individual to panic, and to have then try to dig the 'insects' out. Since the genjutsu is real-time, any movement that they do in the 'cage' will happen in real life (example: if they tear open their arm, they will do the same in real life). If Naruto detects his opponents brain starting to subconsciously shut down, Naruto will block all pain for a moment, and fade the cage. After the victim has started to come back, he will restart the jutsu with a different bug. Naruto can keep the jutsu up for at least an hour, by that time the victim will likely have bled out. Inspired by the Aburame.

_Note:_ His technique is very strong anyway, but was made stronger when he fought Gorou since he was mixing in the Kyuubi's chakra at the time.

**Bye now!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey Y'all! (Yes I actually say that from time to time) How are my favorite anonymous internet viewers? Good? Good! Here is my next installment of Naruto of the Acid Rain! I had some issues getting in time to work on it, but the weekend helped a lot!**

**Note: New and Improved!**

**Also Note: Some things that were in this chapter have been pushed into chapter 5 as chapter 4 was getting too long! So expect the first portion of Chapter 5 to be familiar.**

**I would like to briefly thank **_**pain17ification**_** for being my first BETA reader ever! And **_**Lednacek**_** for being the second! Both helped a lot in the improvement of these chapters.**

**Also, go check out pain's stuff, he has some good stories! **

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto. But I am sitting on the couch, warm blanket covering me, with my feet up on a bean-bag chair... Fuck Yeah!

**Enjoy!**

OOOOO

"Okay, since everyone is here, we can start with class. My name is Iruka Umino, and this is my assistant Mizuki. First, let me say welcome and congratulations on making it to your final year as an academy student! If you pass this year you will go on to become full-fledged ninja of the leaf!" This instructor was average height, had brown hair that was tied back into a ponytail, and had a dark scar across under his eyes that went across his nose. He smiled good-naturedly at the assortment of students sitting before him.

Naruto and his classmates had grown over the years. They were now 11 or 12 years old, and were, for the most part, full of life and vigor. Some of the students had changed dramatically since their first year, while others had not. Naruto was now 5 foot 5 inches, so he was now the same height as Anko, and was still growing. He wore the same gas-mask and the same style of camo jacket and pants. As time went by, especially after this past year, his prankster side seemed to wane (though he still had his warped sense of humor), and he no longer possessed many of the qualities that identified him as a child. While he could still be warm and pleasant to those he liked, he was often cold and calculative.

Naruto had mastered many techniques and knew even more. He now had two iterations of the **Demented Illusions**: **Infestation**, and **Experiment X**. Both were designed to completely break an opponent and, in all likelihood, send them to a mental institution for the rest of their lives. He kept these abilities to himself, knowing that most would not approve of the goal of his genjutsu that he had developed.

His was nearing mastery of his nature manipulation, as he could now almost cut a waterfall completely with his wind chakra, and was able to cover an enormously large area in mist purely from his chakra. This level of manipulation enabled him to create his own style of fighting which he dubbed 'Malevolent Spirit.' He had tested it against the ROOT ANBU, and had found that it was an extremely efficient way of fighting.

Naruto would first throw down a series of chakra-infused smoke pellets around himself and his enemy, then he would create a series of **Mist Servants** and **Poison Cloud Clones** and have then stalk around in the smoke and chakra mist. Using his wind manipulation, he could keep the fog from dissipating, and also 'feel' everything that was inside it. This meant that even though visibility would be around 0, he would still know where his opponent was, and their general movements. With liberal use of **Kawarimi** he could make it seem as though he was simply a spirit, as when getting hit, he would switch places with a clone. This was designed to frustrate and scare his victim, causing them to make mistakes, at which point he would take them down.

His knowledge of poisons was also significantly greater now, and he had started to mix his own concoctions together, and could put together toxins with specific effects in a matter of minutes. He spent many an hour roaming around the forest of death searching for particular animals and plants that were poisonous.

Finally, he jutsu list had grown as well. He had mastered **Poison Cloud Clone**, **Water Release: Gunshot**, **Wind Release: Great Breakthrough**, and **Fire Release: Grand Fireball**. He was now working on his explosive set of water jutsu, but they had been giving him trouble for the past year. The basic concept was to find a balance between overloading the jutsu with chakra so it could explode on impact and covering the jutsu with a film of chakra to contain the energy. He was making progress, but was having trouble with it blowing up in his face, literally.

Back in the classroom, Naruto was listening to his new (and final) Academy instructor.

"So this year we will be adding in taijutsu spars so that you can practice fighting against a moving and retaliating target. We will also be putting the final touches on your basic three jutsu; **Kawarimi**, **Henge**, and **Transformation**. Your target practice will continue from where you left of from last year." Iruka explained to his students.

Naruto scoffed under his mask. 'This whole Academy is a joke. They are making ninja that know almost nothing practical at all. I wouldn't be surprised is Pinky over there dies within the first year.'

"Okay guys, today we will be talking about..." Naruto missed the rest of the lecture as he subsequently fell asleep.

Early on he found out one of the major perks of having the gas mask; as long as he remained sitting in the same position, no one could tell if he was awake or not. He used this fact to its fullest potential in class.

"Naruto." Iruka called.

"Hmm?" he replied as he opened his eyes to see the teacher staring at him.

"Naruto, could you explain the uses of the **Kawarimi** to the class?"

Sighing, he began. "The **Kawarimi** is a very versatile and practical jutsu. Its list of uses is practically endless." He then switched seats with a student on the other side of the room. The class gasped, as he hadn't even used any hand signs, and there had been no smoke. "As you can see, it can be used to switch places with people." He **Kawarimied** with the same student again, so he was sitting back in his seat. "It can also be used to swap places with objects. This allows the user to confuse their opponent, avoid projectiles and jutsu, and also make quick getaways when needed."

Iruka nodded. "Very good Naruto, but please refrain from using techniques in class unless we ask you to." Turning to the rest of the class, he continued his lecture.

OOOOO

The rest of the year was a bit more interesting for the young blue-eyed boy.

Naruto had found another new hobby (and beneficial, in the Hokage's opinion) that year, in the form of Shogi matches with Shikamaru. They were actually fairly evenly matched, and even though lazy boy didn't like some things about Naruto, he still sought him out to play his favorite game. By the end of the year, the matches were 21 Naruto, 24 Shikamaru, with Naruto having won the last match.

Another somewhat thrilling area was the taijutsu sparing. Though they were fairly easy in his opinion, since he had been sparring Anko for many years and could easily outpace most of the other students, he still enjoyed trying new moves against different opponents. The only people that even remotely posed a challenge for the young lad were the Uchiha and the Inuzuka. Though they still could not beat Naruto, they often forced him onto the defensive, and could manage to land hits on him every once and awhile.

Naruto found it especially humorous when he fought and beat Sasuke, as his fan girls were always stuck between wanting to cheer as loudly as possible for their 'love' and not wanting to be on the receiving end of Naruto's ire. The last time a few of them started screaming for Sasuke during the match, Naruto had dodged around his opponent and proceeded to spray the girls with his 'Sleeping Neurotoxin' just to shut them up. Even though he got a detention for that stunt, he would do it again if he found it necessary.

In fact, quite a few interactions with the raven haired boy made Naruto chuckle darkly as he thought of them. One such incident happened about midway through the year, after Naruto had won a taijutsu tournament at school. Since the Uchiha could not believe that someone was better than him, he tried to figure out what made Naruto so good. At first, Sasuke simply asked how Naruto was so powerful, and the gas-masked boy simply chuckled and replied.

"I train every day and night to get better."

Since Sasuke did the same thing, he figured that the other boy had to have some sort of secret. So one day after school he followed Naruto into the Forest of Death. He then proceeded to get lost and ended up stumbling into an area filled with giant fire ants. By the time he got out, he was covered in cuts, welts and bruises, and was totally exhausted.

Now, Sasuke may be a _tad_ bit power hungry, but he isn't stupid, so he recognized that living in that forest probably helped Naruto gain a lot of strength and smarts, but refused to go back into it every again if he could help it. Even though he wanted that strength for himself, he simply continued training at his own grounds.

Another funny incident was when Sasuke was running from a group of crazed girls. Naruto had been having a rather crappy day, and so he decided he needed something to cheer him up. He put the Uchiha under his **Sly Mind Affect Technique** and made the boy take a turn down a dead-end alley. Two things that Naruto saw that after that can still make him bust out laughing today. One being: the look on Sasuke's face when he realized he was at a dead end, and turned around to see the mass of girls. And the other was what Sasuke was reduced to after the girls were done with him (see: covered in kiss marks, shirt-less, and a haunted look on his face).

Not long after that, Naruto got his own taste of what Sasuke was forced to deal with on a daily basis.

_Flashback_

It was a few days after the senior-class wide taijutsu tournament that Naruto had won. Gossip had also been spreading around about how he could perform multiple jutsu without hand signs. He was sitting outside waiting for lunch to end (Shino was absent that day), when he noticed a group of girls were staring at him and giggling. Every time he would look over they would all turn away or look down and blush. Confused, he just continued to wait and tried to ignore them.

After the bell rang, he got up and walked towards the door, and heard one of them sigh and say, "He's _so_ cool!"

'Cool?... The fuck? I'm supposed to strike fear into their hearts, why else did I write the damn word on my mask? Anyways, I thought I was considered weird, creepy even, not..._ cool_.' Naruto thought to himself.

Later that day, when he explained what happened to Anko and how he was confused, her face split into a huge grin.

"I think someone has some fan girls!" Naruto's eye twitched. "Oooohhh this will be good!" the tokubetsu jounin clapped her hands together and cackled evilly.

"Are you fucking kidding me?! I don't want fan girls! I've seen what they can do!" he shuddered as he thought of himself in place of Sasuke as he was getting mauled. "It's... _horrifying_!" Anko just cackled some more and walked away.

'I will kill them if they try to do any of that to me…' he thought

_Flashback end_

For the rest of the year, Naruto was followed around by a small group of girls. It unnerved him slightly, as he did not like the feeling of being watched, but he considered himself lucky (and Sasuke hated him even more), since his fan girls were much more subtle than the Uchiha's. Though there were a few (cat) fights broken up, which were apparently started over arguments about which boy was stronger. He never understood those girls, but considered since they didn't do anything to him, he would let them be. He even felt a little proud that he was able to develop a small 'cult' within the school, without any effort on his part. One day, he saw that they actually had armbands that had the same kanji as was written on his forehead. For him, the whole experience was weird, but strangely satisfying.

OOOOO

It was the day of the final exam. Most of the students were buzzing with excitement, and were talking animatedly with each other. Naruto turned to his friend.

"Want to take guesses whether or not people will pass?" he suggested.

Shino looked puzzled (see: slightly raised his eyebrow). "Why would we do that?"

Naruto shrugged. "Entertainment."

The bug user turned to observe the rest of the class then sighed. Taking that as a yes, Naruto began to scrutinize each of his classmates. Not too long after, Iruka and Mizuki walked in, with a clipboard for each of them.

"Okay class, settle down. Class!" a tick mark appeared on Iruka's forehead. He then used his famous **Giant Head Technique**. "SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!" Instantly everyone got to their seats and turned to face him. "Okay then, we will be taking the final exam today! The exam consists of performing the basic three jutsu we have been teaching you. Keep in mind: while the grades you have had in class effect your placement, if you fail this exam, no matter how well you have been doing in class: you will fail."

"We will be going in reverse alphabetical order. First up: Idonte Zarak."

Naruto muttered out. "Fail, this kid is utterly terrible at the **Kawarimi**." Shino nodded at his assessment. After a minute of testing, and a failed **Kawarimi** attempt, the student trudged away downcast.

"Ino Yamanaka."

"I believe she will pass." Shino stated. Naruto tilted his head.

"You think so? She's one of Sasuke's top fan girls, I'm not sure she even knows what chakra is." he chuckled at his own joke.

His friend shook his head. "She is a clan heir; her family would not let her fail the academy."

"Fine." Naruto mumbled.

A minute later, Ino walked back to her seat with a shiny new headband in hand.

Iruka called the next name on his list. "Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto stood up and looked at his friend.

They seemed to stare at each other for a moment, before Shino said, "Pass." (Shino has a sense of humor!)

Naruto snorted and walked down to the front of the class.

"Please perform a **Kawarimi** with the chair next to you." Naruto and the chair instantly switched places. "Okay, very nice. Now **Henge** yourself into either myself or Mizuki." Once again, without any hand seals Naruto performed the technique flawlessly. "Now for the last technique, the **Clone**."

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Mizuki trying to subtly go through some hand signs. Using his wind manipulation, Naruto created a very soft breeze that blew some dust into Mizuki's face. Right before he made the clones, he managed to get Mizuki to sneeze, breaking his sequence of signs. Then, three clones poofed into existence, and he heard a quiet curse come from Iruka's assistant.

"Very good Naruto, here is your headband." Iruka congratulated him. Naruto took the headband, tied it around his bicep, and walked back up to his seat.

'That bastard was going to make me fail.' he grumbled to himself. 'Or... maybe I'm just being paranoid. Nope, he was trying to make me fail. First, I'm going to find out why, and then I'll make him pay!'

"Sasuke Uchiha." Iruka called out.

Naruto and Shino stayed silent, knowing that the raven haired boy would pass without a doubt.

OOOOO

After a relatively short class period Iruka announced to the group. "I just wanted to say to those that didn't pass, you can still try again next year, and I'm sure that you will get your headband. To those that did pass, well done! Please come back next week for your team assignments." All of the pre-teens got up from their chairs and went about their business. Some went to go get congratulated by their parents, while others tried to hide the fact that they didn't pass.

Naruto though, was on a mission. He wanted to find out what Mizuki was up to, and then probably put him in the hospital. He followed him out of the building, and continued to pursue him through the city. After he went into the Hokage Tower, Naruto **Henged** himself into a small mouse, and discreetly watched as Mizuki went through a restricted door.

'I think I'll wait until that prick comes back out.'

Finally after what felt like hours waiting, the chuunin reappeared with a giant scroll on his back and took off in a sprint towards the nearest gate. Naruto un-**Henged** himself and took off in pursuit.

Naruto had finally caught up to the ex-instructor when he had taken a break just outside the walls.

"Come out!" Mizuki called. "I know someone's there!" Then smoke pellets exploded at his feet and an ominous laugh reverberated around him. A thick fog was soon covering the area.

"I knew something was off about you Mizuki. I'm guessing you were going to use my 'failure' of the exam to get me to steal that scroll for you, so you could use me as a scapegoat and then get away scot-free." the boy reduced the mist intensity and made himself known.

"You got me!" he mocked. "That was my plan, but I guess I didn't need you after all. Since you decided to show your face, I guess I get to kill you anyways. Now die demon!"

Naruto laughed as Mizuki threw a kunai at his head. It passed right through him and then his body warped and split into two different bodies. Naruto then switched places with one and he and his other visible clone both threw some poisoned senbon, and then switched with another clone he had made out of sight. Mizuki dodged all of them and retaliated by pulling a giant shuriken off his back and throwing it at them. The Naruto on the right morphed and split into two more, and the one on the left became hazy and dissipated into a poison gas cloud.

"Come out and face me you coward!" Mizuki screamed as he whirled around to look for the camo-clad boy. "You want to know why everyone hates your guts!? You are the demon! That's right! The Kyuubi no Kitsune! You are the one that killed hundreds of people eleven years ago! And now, I will be praised as a hero for killing you!" He laughed as he pictured Naruto's devastated visage (though he had never seen his face, so it was a little difficult).

"I contain the Kyuubi you imbecile, I am not the demon myself. And I highly doubt you will be able to hit me once." he heard a voice echo off the trees. Mizuki snarled. He haphazardly threw some shuriken around hoping to get a lucky hit, and in return he got a hail of senbon. Trying to discern which were real and which weren't all while dodging the real pieces of metal proved to be impossible, so he got a few scratches and one nasty hole in his side.

"And that is the end of this battle. Those senbon were coated in the venom of the Giant Yellow Jacket Wasp native to the Forest of Death. Tell me, do you feel dizziness? Light headed perhaps?" Naruto's voice called out from the smoke. Sure enough, Mizuki's vision started to spin, and his head felt like it was being pumped full of helium.

"He he he. Now for the fun part." He heard from somewhere. His body began to lurch and jerk as new cuts appeared all over his body. He couldn't see straight enough to dodge the flying metal, and as a result was extremely open to attack, which Naruto exploited fully. Gash after gash opened up, releasing his lifeblood onto the ground. Mizuki screamed out in agony and fear as he dropped to his knees, covered in blood.

"Yes! Scream out to the heavens! Cry out for salvation and _**DIE IN FEAR**_!" Naruto roared as he appeared in front of the chuunin and stabbed him in the throat. His eyes, glowing bright red behind his mask, were the last thing that the chuunin saw as his life slipped away.

As the corpse dropped, the pre-teen snatched up the giant scroll that had been attached to his back. "You know, I wonder why this is forbidden." Unrolling the scroll, he skipped through a few jutsu until he saw two techniques that made him grin with delight: **Shadow Clone** and **Explosive Shadow Clone**. After quickly pulling out his own scroll and copying down all the information on each technique, he rolled the scroll back up and waited for the inevitable ANBU to show up. Sure enough, a minute later, 5 ANBU dropped into the clearing. Naruto had to resist immediately attacking them, as he was reminded of the ambush from last year.

"Naruto Uzumaki, please hand over the Forbidden Scroll." he grabbed the scroll as it was tossed to him. "Thank you for retrieving it for us and defeating the traitor, though we would have preferred to capture him alive, so that we could interrogate him."

The gas masked boy merely looked at the man "He deserved to die." The ANBU sweat dropped.

After being let go by the other shinobi, Naruto quickly made his way home, so that he could begin his study on his two new techniques.

OOOOO

A few days later an assortment of jounin, Iruka and the Hokage were all gathered around a table. There were dossiers on the recent graduates scattered across the surface.

"Hokage-sama, I'm concerned about having Naruto on my team. I've heard he's... unstable, and extremely violent."

"I've thought this out pretty well, Kurenai." The old man smiled at the jounin. "Allow me to explain. First of all, I've put Shino on the team also. As Iruka has told me, those two have a good relationship, and I believe the Aburame will be able to help keep Naruto in line. Also, I chose you specifically too. You are level-headed, calm, and caring for those under your leadership. Naruto needs an instructor with those traits.

"I, myself, believe that he is as unstable because he has almost no friends at all. His social interaction consists almost purely of Anko, Shino and some Shogi matches with Shikamaru. While they are very good people, I don't think that only ever talking to them has done the boy much good over the years. If you and Hinata could at least converse with him regularly, I believe it will help mellow him out. I also trust that you will be a fair and honest teacher towards all three genin." At which Kurenai nodded slowly, not sure why he pointed that out. "Allow Iruka to explain."

The teacher cleared his throat. "Well, Naruto has developed a sort of extreme... _dislike_ for teachers that are biased towards some students and give special attention to others." Kurenai raised a delicate eyebrow.

One of the other jounin snickered and said. "Dislike is a bit of an understatement, isn't it? I heard he poisoned three different instructors on separate occasions. Though they never could pin anything on the kid." The red-eyed jounin's eyebrows rose so high they were hidden behind her bangs.

Iruka cleared his throat again. "Yes, as I was saying. Last year there were a total of three different instructors poisoned and sent to the hospital. Each had been teaching Naruto's class at the time. When they were found, they all had a note somewhere on their clothing that said, 'Those that cannot teach fairly, don't deserve to teach at all.' After waking up they would immediately, as if fearing the wrath of God, resign from their position for reasons they wouldn't explain. After the second time, the school board started to secretly watch the class, as they noticed both teachers had that period. They noticed the current teacher was giving Naruto harder tests and quizzes. And he had also been giving him weighted kunai and shuriken so that his throwing was off. Sure enough, he was sent to urgent care a few days later, with the same note, and he resigned from his position as soon as he was awake. Now, we could never officially prove that Naruto had done any of them," No one noticed the Hokage's mouth curve into a smile, ever so slightly. "But it is extremely likely that it was him. After that last incident, the board made sure to interview the next instructor very thoroughly beforehand, so they wouldn't have any more instructors sent to the hospital."

"Thank you Iruka. As you can see, Naruto cannot work with an instructor that he thinks is biased, which is one of the reasons I chose you as his team leader. Another point is that Naruto is extremely talented at genjutsu. I'm assuming you heard what happened to Gorou back a few years ago?" the Third asked.

"Of course, how could I not have? A chuunin put into the mental hospital permanently after being subjected to a non-Uchiha genjutsu?" she replied.

The aged Hokage nodded. "Well, though it's not widely known, Naruto was the one that made that jutsu, and put the man under it. I witnessed the scene myself." Kurenai gasped, not only had an academy student been able to create his own illusion, but it was also insanely powerful.

She gathered herself for one last question. "So where does this leave Hinata? She's terrified of the boy."

He smiled back knowingly. "Well, I know that you care for the girl, so I took that into consideration. Also, even though she may be scared of him now, she will learn that both are actually quite nice once you get to know them. Neither boy has shown any aversion towards the girl, so I think she will be a great teammate for him and Shino." The jounin sighed, and then nodded.

OOOOO

The following week, all of the graduates were talking amongst themselves, waiting for Iruka to come in and announce the teams.

Naruto was sitting next to Shino thinking to himself. 'I really hope I don't get morons for teammates. I swear, if I got teamed up with _dark-and-emo _over there, and one of his fan girls I will probably kill myself.'

Iruka walked in, smiled as he looked around and glanced down at the clipboard he had in his hand. "Okay class, please quiet down. Now, the teams will be as follows; Team 1 will be..." (non-important teams) "Team 7 will be Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno" followed by a squeal from the pink-haired girl. "Sit _down_ Sakura! And Kiba Inuzuka. You jounin instructor will be Kakashi Hatake. Team 8 will be Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuuga, and Naruto Uzumaki. Kurenai Yuuhi will be your jounin instructor."

The camo-clad boy sighed in relief. 'Probably the best team I could have gotten, honestly. Looks like this won't be as bad as I thought. Don't know much about our jounin though, besides the fact that Anko is friends with her. Hopefully she's nice, or she won't last long.' he chuckled darkly to himself. After a few minutes of waiting, a woman came into the room. She had long, black hair that was slightly unkempt. Her most striking feature was her red eyes, although her bandage-like clothes came in a close second.

"Team 8, please come with me." she said.

OOOOO

Team 8 was sitting in a local restaurant. Kurenai was sitting on one side of the table, with Hinata next to her. The two boys were on the other side, sitting quietly.

The jounin sighed. 'Getting each one of them to talk, especially to each other, is going to be difficult. Hinata is already timid,' she glanced at said girl, who was trying to make herself as small as possible under Naruto's gaze. 'and Naruto's reputation doesn't help that. Shino is an Aburame, so getting him speaking more than a few words will be a chore. And then there's Naruto...' she sighed again, and rubbed her temples.

"Okay guys, let's try and get to know each other. I'll start; my name is Kurenai Yuuhi. I like my friends, reading, and studying genjutsu. My dislikes are those that are perverts and those that believe women cannot be competent ninja. My hobbies include hanging out with friends and doing different things around town. My dream is to become known as one of the greatest genjutsu users in the world, and then settle down and have a small family. Shino, why don't you go next?"

Shino adjusted his glasses. "My name is Shino Aburame. I like my friend, Naruto, and my insects. My dislikes are those that judge someone before they get to know them, and bug-spray. My hobbies are studying insects, and walking in forests. My dream is to become a great leader for my clan."

Kurenai smiled at the boy, and turned to her right, "Hinata?"

The girl looked seriously nervous. Her brow was creased, and her eyes looked fearful. She was poking her fingers together in her nervous habit, and glanced at her instructor, then nodded slowly. "M-my n-n-name is Hinata H-h-hyu-uga. I-I l-like my f-fa-amily. I d-disl-l-like d-d-dissapp-pointing p-p-people. My h-hobby is p-press-sing f-flowers. M-my d-dream is to u-u-unite the Hyuu-uga f-family."

Naruto was staring at the girl (at least that's what it looked like, since it was hard to see his eyes). 'Good God it's difficult to listen to her speak. I hope she can stop that stuttering soon, or I may go ever _more_ crazy...'

'Going to have to really work on her confidence some more.' Kurenai turned to her last student, and nodded.

"Naruto Uzumaki." he stated.

She frowned. "Okay, how about you tell us a little more about yourself than just your name? What do you like?"

He shook his head, said "Those are personal facts." and refused to answer her question.

Finally, the woman gave up, promised herself that she would get him to open up, and spoke. "Alright, well tomorrow you will all be taking my genin examination. In order to officially become team 8, you must pass it. It will start at training ground 8, please show up at 7:00 am. That is all." She smiled at her students. "Naruto, please stay for a moment."

"Yes?" he asked after the other two left.

She looked at the gas masked boy for a moment. "Naruto... in order for this team to function, you are going to have to be a _teammate_. Meaning that you are willing to talk with us, share some _personal_ facts, and be around us. I know this may seem a little weird for you, but I really do want to get to know you, the real you. But I can't if you do not let me."

"Kurenai-sensei, this is me. I cannot be someone that I am not." With that he turned around and left an exasperated jounin behind.

"That's it, I'm going to go talk to Anko some more later, and get a drink or two. That boy is going to drive me crazy." she mumbled to herself.

OOOOO

Later that day, Naruto was getting the itching feeling in the back of his mind. As he was preparing to go out again he felt a pair of arms wrap around him and squeeze him rather tight. He tried to resist the urge to flinch violently, and only succeeded in reducing it slightly. The arms released him and he turned around to look upon the face of Anko.

She frowned at him. "I can't even give you surprise hugs anymore without this kind of reaction?" He didn't feel that he could say anything to placate her, so he simply shrugged and turned back around to make sure he wasn't forgetting anything. "Hey, how about you and I go get some dango tonight!" she grinned at him.

"I can't, I have some training I have to work on." He told her.

She looked a little incredulous on what his training entailed, but didn't press it. "Try not to push yourself too hard. Just remember; you're my Naruto-kun and I don't want you to get hurt." Naruto felt a warm feeling in his stomach, and his shoulders rose slightly. "If my little _buddy_ got hurt I don't know what I'd do." They slumped back down and the feeling went away.

Deep in the recesses of his mind, Naruto heard deep mocking laughter, and what sounded like 'friend-zoned.' He shuddered but finished checking over his gear. "Sorry Anko-chan." he walked past her and opened the door. "See you later." He waved and leapt out the door.

While Naruto was out soaking himself in blood, Anko, Kurenai, Hana, and Yuugao were all at a local bar. They all had just sat down and ordered their drinks. Once they got them, Anko's friends noticed she lacked all of the energy she normally had.

"Anko, what's wrong?" Yuugao asked.

Anko took another swig of her sake. "It's just Naruto, again." She loved him so much, but sometimes she just... _hated_ him. Before, she was relatively carefree. She didn't have to care about anyone but herself. But now that she had someone she was really close to, she had someone she was worried over.

"He seriously needs some more friends or something. All he does is train and fight in the Forest of Death, and as a result his social life is practically non-existent." She looked over to her black-haired friend. "Please tell me he had a positive reaction to the team assignments."

Kurenai smiled awkwardly at her friend. "Ehh, well I'm not entirely sure of his reaction. Today at introductions he said a total of... his name. After I pulled him aside afterwards he said another few sentences before walking away. Is that normal for him?"

"Yup, that sounds like Naruto alright." she sighed.

"So how do I get him to think of Hinata and myself as friends? Or at least talk more? Could you give me some insight into what he likes?" Kurenai questioned.

"Well, one thing that I've found is that he loves a challenge. He will always throw himself at a challenge and try to work through it, though sometimes he has a lack of patience. Treating him to ramen was always a good way for him to warm up to you, but avoid going to Ichiraku's. Umm... just be around him and try to force him into the conversation. Hopefully, with more people willing to talk to him, he will realize he doesn't have to be all closed off and can trust more people.

"Oh yeah! If he starts to get _twitchy_, try and catch him before he leaves, and hang out with him for a while, maybe that will help. That's all I've got really, since he's stopped talking to me lately."

"It'll be okay Anko, you'll get Naruto back." Hana stated with conviction.

OOOOO

The next day, the genin of Team 8 were all waiting at their training ground. Hinata was sitting far away from the boys, under a tree. Shino was currently sitting next to Naruto, watching an ant crawl across his finger. The gas-masked boy was sitting with his back against a tree, twirling a kunai on his finger. Secretly, Naruto was practicing keeping a semi-permanent **Henge **up, as he used a clone to take his place. He was actually the kunai, while it was a **Shadow Clone** sitting there. Suddenly, a poof of smoke appeared near them, and it blew away to reveal their teacher.

"Good, you're all here." She smiled happily. "Today is the day that you will either become true genin, or go back to the Academy." She let that sink in for a moment, and then continued. "So here is the challenge that you have to pass today. All you three have to do, is touch me. You have two hours." Silence reigned after that.

Naruto turned to Shino. "She serious?"

"It doesn't appear that she is lying."

Naruto turned back to their sensei and stared. 'Wait a second... she said yesterday she likes genjutsu...' He pulsed his chakra and the Kurenai in front of him faded. 'Shit... I don't feel her signature anywhere, so I won't be able to find her anytime soon, unless I spam clones... but I don't feel like doing that.' "Hey Shino, think your bugs could find her?" he suggested.

"It will take time for my kikai to locate her. I had placed a female one on her, but I cannot seem to find it." the stoic genin stated. They both turned to look at their female teammate after they heard her say something. She ducked her head and mumbled some more.

"What?" Naruto asked.

"I-I s-see a n-n-note." she pointed a shaky finger over to a nearby tree. Naruto pulsed his chakra again to reveal a note that had been hidden under a genjutsu. Striding over, he read it.

"It says, 'Crushing Depths.' Oookay, what the hell does that mean?" Naruto asked.

Shino walked over and read the note himself. "It sounds like a simple riddle; one that I suspect will involve the lake at the end of the training ground." Naruto nodded at his friend's assessment. He started to jog over towards the body of water, but then stopped when he noticed that he wasn't being followed by Hinata.

"Hinata!" he received an 'eep' in return. He sighed. "Come on!" She nodded and then the three ran over to the lake and stopped at the edge. Seeing as he was the one with the re-breather, walked out onto the lake, and then dropped down. Utilizing his chakra to make sure his clothes didn't get soaked, he began to search around on the bottom of the lake bed. After a good 10 minutes of searching, he resurfaced. "Nothing."

"Our sensei used genjutsu on the last note, did you try pulsing your chakra while down there?" Shino inquired.

Naruto sighed, then shook his head and dove back down. At the bottom again, he pulsed his chakra, which resulting in breaking his bubble, and soaking his clothes instantly. He did happen to see another note after he was done cursing, and read it. He swam back up and walked to his teammates. "Well, I'm soaked now, so thanks a lot Shino. But I did find the note. This one said, 'Hidden Leaf.' So that could mean... anywhere in the village. Or it could mean literal leaves."

The trio stood for a minute thinking, then they all decided to go toward the forest area in the training ground. After haphazardly searching around for 20 minutes, Naruto was getting frustrated. He finally snapped and threw a kunai at the nearest living being. Luckily for his teammates, that happened to be a squirrel, and not them. Shino adjusted his glasses slightly and Hinata became white as a ghost.

Walking over and pulling his kunai out of the now dead squirrel, he shook his head. "We don't even know what we are looking for."

Shino spoke up. "Hinata," She almost jumped and ran away right then, but restrained herself. "Can you use your Byakugan again to search for us?" She nodded and activated her blood line. After a few seconds she pointed up and to her left. Shino took the initiative and sent his kikai to collect the note.

"Good job Hinata. This one just says, 'Back to the Basics.'"

They all tried to think about what this riddle meant. Naruto suggested it could mean that they have to use one of the 'Academy Three' for something, but then realized that still didn't give them anything. Shino couldn't come up with anything, but finally the boys noticed that Hinata seemed to have an idea, as she was nervously poking her fingers together.

"I t-think that m-m-means w-we have to s-search at the A-a-academy." she spoke softly.

"That sounds logical." Shino agreed.

The genin took off towards the school, and after jumping down in the front lawn, walked inside. Shino began to walk off, so the other two followed, assuming he found his female kikai bug finally. They walked along the corridors and then through the back doors that led to the sparring rings. Shino strode towards a random chuunin instructor that was leaning against a fence.

"My kikai can still find you even under your genjutsu, sensei." The chuunin smirked and then morphed into their jounin instructor.

She smiled at Hinata as the girl walked over and touched her arm. But then raised an eyebrow when the boys weren't approaching her to touch her. Then after a moment, Shino strode over and did the same thing.

"Very good you three, you found me. But Naruto you still need to touch me to pass." Kurenai then blinked and nearly smacked her forehead in realization. 'Anko did tell me that he had an dislike for physical contact with anyone but her. And even then she said she was going to have to lay off her _surprise-hugs_ for a while.'

Inside Naruto's head, he was arguing with himself. 'Come on man! Just go up and poke her in the arm! It's not like it can be a trap, the other two just did it! What the fuck?! Just do it! GAH!' He stopped arguing as the jounin began to walk towards him.

She put a hand on his shoulder and smiled at him. "There, you pass." He didn't seem to outwardly react, besides a slight stiffening of his back, so she removed her hand and walked back so she could see all of her students. "Alright, so now you are the official team 8. Do any of you know why I tested you like I did?" They either shook their head or stayed silent. "Well, this test actually had multiple facets that it was testing you on. First of all, it was designed to see if you could work as a team. Not one of you, by yourself, could have found me within the time-limit. But since you all worked together, you found me with time to spare. Secondly, it was testing your ability to work problems out, such as what each note meant or what to do when the note was at the bottom of the lake, or amongst the leaves. Finally, it tested your tracking skills. These all were designed with your team in mind, since with your make-up, Hinata's Byakugan, Shino's bugs, and Naruto's stealth, you will most likely be a tracking and scouting team, with the possibility of working as a shock team also.

"Now then, we will be meeting together everyday except Sunday at training ground 8 at 7:00 am. The days will alternate between training and missions. Now I could let you go, but how about we all go hang out together at the park for a little while?"

Naruto shook his head. "I've got some training to do."

Kurenai gave him a hard look and put her hands on her hips. "I think it would be a great idea if we went to the park together. _Right_ Shino? Hinata?"

Hinata nervously nodded her head.

"It could be beneficial to team cohesion. And I wouldn't mind searching for new insects that could be there." Shino concluded, at which point Naruto through up his hands in frustration, and admitted defeat.

They all walked to the park in awkward silence. It was occasionally penetrated by Kurenai asking one of the genin and question, but the result was mostly one or two word answers from the boys. When they finally got to the park, Naruto walked over to a nearby tree, walked up it, and then sat down on one of the limbs. Kurenai sat next to the tree with Hinata, while Shino was wandering nearby looking for insects.

Hinata and Kurenai talked between each other for the most part, while Naruto would add in every now and again when asked. About 30 minutes later, Naruto fell asleep laying down on his branch. After another 10 minutes, a small group of girls made their way over to Kurenai. They looked to be Academy age, and all had small black wristbands on.

'Black wristbands, looks like the fan girls Anko was telling me about.' "How can I help you girls?" The jounin asked.

One looked to the others for confirmation. "Are you Kurenai, the jounin in Naruto's team?" She nodded. "Would you tell us where he is?" She pointed almost directly above them, to the sleeping form of Naruto. The girls gasped and then quietly squealed. Whispering amongst each other for a moment, one of the taller girls boosted another up onto Naruto's branch.

"May I ask what you are going to do to my genin?"

"We've always wanted to see what Naruto was like under his mask, it's been our goal for over a month now, but he's always managed to avoid us." Kurenai seemed to think it over, then nodded, considering she herself had never seen under his mask either. The girl on the branch slowly reached up to his mask, shakily preparing to finally achieve their goal.

Slowly.

Closer.

Almost there.

POOF!

"IIEE!" she squealed and fell off the branch, landing on one of the other girls.

The red-eyed woman was stuck between astonishment that she herself had been fooled by Naruto's clone (and the fact that he could make them) or being furious that he decided to leave.

"Sorry girls, seems like he managed to sneak away earlier, and replaced himself with a clone." Kurenai apologized.

The students collectively aw'd and then trudged away. The jounin sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time today, and went to talk to the Hokage about the fact that her genin knew a Forbidden Technique.

OOOOO

**Done and Done! Hope you liked my new chapter. It was difficult to get the flow right, and I kept cutting different parts out, and putting other parts in. But overall I think it turned out pretty well. I realize that I'm probably not the best at writing action scenes, but hopefully I'll get better.**

**Note for Upcoming Chapters:**

**I will be showing how this Naruto interacts with people such as: bandits, his team, Anko, the Hokage, arbitrary citizens, chuunin examinees, and other random people! I will also be adding in more action scenes, **_**plot development**_** and giving Naruto new toys to play with!**

**Thanks for reading! Please REVIEW for me and tell me all about how you loved/hated it and WHY! I know some of you think,**

**"I'm not really qualified to comment on his work. It's not like I have a degree in English or (insert other lame excuse here)."**

**Well that is a lie! If I'm qualified to write, with no previous background in ANY writing at all, then you are totally qualified to critique my work (no flaming please).**

**Here's a list of descriptions for the new jutsu listed in this chapter.**

**Shadow Clone (B-rank):** (Taken from a Naruto Wiki, you get the point) Similar to the Clone Technique, this technique creates clones of the user. However, these clones are actual copies, not illusions. The user's chakra is evenly distributed among every clone, giving each clone an equal fraction of the user's overall power. The clones are capable of performing techniques on their own and can even bleed, but will usually disperse after one or two solid blows, though even then it may not be enough.

**Explosive Shadow Clone (A-rank):** (Taken from a Naruto Wiki) This technique is used to create a shadow clone that can be detonated. The clone looks like a normal shadow clone, which allows the user to get it close to the target without them expecting anything besides a normal attack, or the target might even close in willingly to try to attack the clone.

**Giant Head Technique (E-rank): **(My own explanation/technique) Invented by Iruka, to scare his students into quieting down. He simply Henges his head to look larger and more 'mean.' He projects his voice to make it louder to get his students' attention.

**Thanks again! Farewell!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Heyyy Guys! Long time no update, right? Sorry about that, but there have been things that have come up. Firstly, if you didn't know, chapters 3 and 4 have been updated! They are new and improved and full of awesome new content (Like an Omake at the end of chapter 3!) Secondly, this chapter's inspiration has been slow and sporadic, so yeah. And finally… schoolwork and midterm… Yay.**

_**Important Note:**_

_**This Chapter has some scenes from the 'old' chapter 4 (which has new scenes). Not very much, but enough that chapter 4 was getting too long and I just moved things forward.**_

**Also Note:**

**In my series, only sensor ninja will be able to tell **_**whose**_** chakra belongs to whom. For example, Kakashi would be able to tell that the mist that Naruto generates is filled with chakra, but not that it's **_**Naruto's**_** chakra. This does not apply to youkai.**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto. I do own… this mouse! And… this keyboard! And look, even a stack of engineering paper! Woo!

**Enjoy!**

OOOOO

Naruto sat up startled and looked around. He soon recognized the area as his mindscape, though it was somewhat different than before. The floor was no longer filled with water, and was simply what looked like cracked concrete. The pipes were still there and when he looked around, he spotted the cage gates also.

"**At last! That seal has proved more annoying than I figured. Come here boy**." The Kyuubi called out from behind his cage. Naruto stood up and walked closer to the cage. He stopped when he was about 10 feet from the bars. "**I'm sure you're wondering why I've called you here.**" Naruto had an idea, but nodded anyways. "**I would have called you sooner, but the Yondaime's seal has proved much better at blocking communication between us than I expected. Anyways, you have killed your first human, and as a result, I believe you are ready for a deal with me.**"

"What type of deal?" Naruto questioned.

The huge beast grinned. "**That idiotic Hokage's seal has stuck us together for the rest of eternity so we might as well make the best of it. I think you will find that we both can benefit from working together. If you agree, I will give you full access to my youkai, and though it will take time to acclimate your body to its full corrosive properties, you will eventually be able to go into full tailed beast mode.**" Its huge tails swayed back and forth as it waited for Naruto to answer.

"Sounds like fun!" He chuckled, but then he paused. "What do you want out of this?"

"**Not too much. For one, I would like you to change this damn cage to something more interesting, a forest perhaps. And secondly, I want you to let me out every once and awhile. I want to be able to fight again, to do what I was made to do! Not sit in THIS DAMN CAGE!**" It roared and slammed a few tails against the bars, after a few awkward seconds it spoke up again. "**My apologies, got a little worked up there for a moment. So what do you say?**" As he finished his sentence the bars morphed in a collar that was wrapped around his neck, while the rest of the cage swirled and changed into a forest that looked extremely similar the Forest of Death. The Kyuubi grinned as it felt the (albeit fake) wind against its fur, and looked down to see some smaller beasts roaming around.

"**Alright then, time to hold up my end of the deal, this will hurt… a lot.**" Red chakra began to swirl around Naruto and eventually covered his whole body, then all at once it soaked into him and he felt as if he had been dipped into lava. His muscles spasmed and he fell onto the floor writhing in pain as his world faded to black once again.

He woke up in the real world and sat up panting heavily. He looked at his hands and observed that his gloves seemed a little tighter than normal. In fact, his pants and jacket felt a little too tight too.

'Must have been the youkai.' He thought. 'Good thing I have so many pairs of this outfit, or else I would have to do laundry every day. And that I brought those larger sizes that the Ame-nin had.' He stood up and walked over to his closet. After opening it he pulled out the next size in his outfit and changed into it. Happy that they fit well, he went over to the mirror and inspected himself. He noted that he had grown at least an inch or two and was now around 5 feet 9 inches. He flexed his arms and felt like they were also a lot strong than before.

He grinned and quickly left his home to head towards a more secluded area in the Forest of Death. After a good 30 minutes of running, he was satisfied he was far enough and began to search for the youkai inside his body. Red chakra began swirl around him and formed a one-tailed fox cloak over him. He laughed and turned to see a boar that was nearby, rooted in place. He pointed his arm towards the beast and was satisfied to see that the red chakra formed a clawed arm that shot out and wrapped itself around the boar.

The beast squealed and attempted to thrash its way out of his hold, but soon succumbed to death as the youkai burned its insides and killed it. Naruto let the cloak fade and plopped to the ground.

"That was awesome! But, I'll have to find time to get used to it; my insides feel like they are on fire!" He laughed, and then immediately fell onto his back and passed out.

OOOOO

The next day, the genin had gathered at training ground 8 once again, and were waiting for their jounin. One poof and cloud of smoke later, she showed up right at 7:00 am.

"Naruto," she pointed at him. "Mind telling me why you know a kinjutsu? I talked to the Hokage yesterday, and he stated that he didn't know why you knew the **Shadow Clone**."

He shrugged. "Figured it was payment for killing a traitor, and returning a valuable scroll." As it turns out, this boy was actually a clone also, and the genin himself was the Konoha headband (which was on his arm) this time.

She then gave him a look that said, '_You will be talking to the Hokage later_.' Then she paused for a moment. 'Is he taller?' Kurenai shook her head and ignored that thought for now.

"Anyways, today is your first day of training. I will use today's training to determine what you need to work on in the future, and what you are deficient in. We will be starting with physical training every morning, with running laps, push-ups, sit-ups and then taijutsu spars. After that, we will be having an early lunch together. Then, we will return to work on chakra control, and once I deem you fit, you will move on to ninjutsu or genjutsu. We will be alternating between the two, depending on what I want you to learn, and what you have been working on previously. By the end of training it will be around dinner time, and you will be dismissed for the day. Any questions?"

They all stayed silent, so she then ordered them to begin by stretching and then doing a regiment of push-ups sit-ups, and other simple exercises. Naruto figured that he should actually do the exercises, and switched back with his clone. Kurenai was pleased when she determined that all three of them were already physically fit for their age, which meant they didn't have to waste time getting them into shape later on. Afterwards, she sparred with each of them individually, to see what their level was in taijutsu. Then, she took them all aside afterwards.

"Okay team, I'm very impressed with all of you so far. Hinata, your taijutsu is exceptional, but you need to work on being a bit more flexible with your stance. I noticed that you always use the same rigid stance of that style, and that won't do at all. If someone already knows about the Gentle Fist, or fights you for an extended period of time, you will become predictable, so we will be working with you on that. Naruto, your taijutsu is also very good, and something I've never seen before. You could keep up with me when I was almost going full speed, which shows a lot. You precision is also top notch, but I noticed that you rely heavily on dodging and evading, your offense was a little lackluster. Though your strikes were very powerful when they hit, you never went on the attack enough."

Naruto spoke up. "I've never needed to only on taijutsu. I always have my weapons on hand. I don't need as many hits when I can paralyze with a single cut."

Kurenai shook her head. "You have to be prepared for anything Naruto."

'I am probably prepared for anything, besides maybe the entirety of Konoha blowing up.' he mentally retorted.

"Even fighting without your weapons. Though, I do agree that your taijutsu is already good enough that we probably won't have to focus too much on it. And finally, Shino. Your taijutsu is probably the most 'well-rounded' of the three of you. You are very good, and your stance is almost perfect, and you have a good use of offensive and defensive strikes. But the speed of your moves and strikes could use a lot of work." she turned to face her whole team again. "Guys, I'm going to be honest with you now and say that given your fitness level, and taijutsu, you are all at _least_ low chuunin already, you just need more experience." she looked at the position of the sun. "Since it looks to be around noon, let's go get some lunch together and then we will come back for more training."

The group left to go to a local BBQ restaurant, and sat down with Shino next to Naruto and Hinata and Kurenai on the other side of the table. Once again, the jounin found her team to be so quiet it was almost aggravating. The boys would typically only talk to each other, and only in short sentences anyways. While Hinata refused to even look at Naruto for extended periods of time. Their team was lacking cohesion, but hopefully with time they would all get used to each other.

OOOOO

After the meal, they all walked back to the training grounds to work on their chakra control, but Kurenai was in for a major surprise.

"Okay guys, I'm going to teach you two chakra control exercises: tree walking and water walking." she noticed that Naruto shook his head.

"I mastered both of those years ago." he stated.

'I saw him use tree walking, but not water walking. But I should have guessed. With his huge chakra reserves, he would have to have near perfect control to work on genjutsu, which I know he can use.' "Okay then, would you mind helping your teammates with the exercises." she questioned.

Naruto shrugged. "I can give a few tips, but there's not much I can do other than that. Chakra control is something that one has to figure out how to do on their own, it's like trying to teach someone how to use chopsticks in the dark: You can talk to them, but it's hard to describe the intricacies of holding chop sticks. You can try and show them, but they can't really see you anyways. It really just requires their own trial and error to figure out how to do." Kurenai seemed to agree with his assessment but waved him on. "Fine. Tree walking is just learning how to mold chakra somewhere where you are not used to, and using it to stick to a surface. You have to keep a relatively constant flow, and keep the right amount flowing. Too much and you blow off, too little and it can't hold you. Water walking is very similar, but requires you to push your chakra out of your feet at a _very_ steady rate to maintain a bubble that holds you up. That's all I can think of."

Kurenai spoke up. "Shino, Hinata, head over to those trees and start practicing. I suggest lying on the ground with your feet up against the tree, and then trying to walk up from that position." The two walked off to try to complete the exercise. She turned back to Naruto. "Okay Naruto, I will be judging your genjutsu proficiency. So, I've heard some rumors, but I want to hear from you. How good are you?

"I've created my own genjutsu, made it impossible to remove by pain and can layer it."

The red-eyed woman almost choked on her own spit. Then gathered herself again and said. "That is impressive. If what you just said is true, you are already extremely proficient. Would you care to demonstrate one of your genjutsu for me?"

"No."

Kurenai looked puzzled. "Why not?"

"I don't plan on permanently impairing my jounin-sensei. All of my genjutsu are offensive and viciously attack the mind. If you want an example, go look for a chuunin that was convicted of attempted rape about a year ago. He should be in a mental institution." he sounded... _proud_ of that fact, something that unnerved Kurenai slightly.

'I'm a genjutsu specialist, so I highly doubt I couldn't get out of whatever he puts me under. That being said though... that man is still there, as far as I've heard, so he's got a point.' "Okay then, how about we move on to ninjutsu? What jutsu do you know so far?"

"I don't feel like divulging exactly what I know so far, but I can give you a few that I've mastered. **Gunshot**, **Great Breakthrough**, **Grand Fireball** and you know I can use the **Shadow Clone**, are all jutsu that I've mastered. I can use each without hand seals or shouting it to mold the chakra."

Once again the jounin was extremely astonished. 'He sounds more like an experienced chuunin or even jounin than a newly minted genin. Three different elements used, holy crap...' "Well Naruto, can you please show me each of those?" He nodded and turned to face away from her. He proceeded to raise one arm up elbow bent, and make a fist with his hand. A bowling ball sized glob of water formed around his fist, and he proceeded to punch forward, sending it hurtling into a nearby rock. Upon hitting the piece of rock, it blew the target apart and showered the area in chunks of stone.

Kurenai looks impressed, then held up a hand. "Hold on, that wasn't **Gunshot**. That jutsu is formed in the mouth and spat out. You formed it around your fist."

Naruto nodded, and tapped one of the canisters attached to his mask. "Since I've got my mask, I can't spit things out of my mouth. So I've had to improvise. But they are still the same jutsu; the chakra is simply kneaded in other parts of my body, instead of my mouth. Like my **Grand Fireball** is formed the same way I make the **Gunshot**." Kurenai shook her head in disbelief.

"That's enough of a demonstration then. If you've figured out how to modify jutsu to fit your own needs, then you are by far the most powerful genin I've ever seen." she complimented. "Why did you not skip the Academy?"

Naruto shrugged. "The Hokage and Anko didn't want me to; afraid I wouldn't have enough friends with people of my age group." Kurenai's mouth formed a sad smile knowing that he really didn't have any friends anyways.

"Okay Naruto, since I'm not prepared to teach you anything else today, you can head home for the day. Tomorrow you and I will be talking with the Hokage though. Meet me an extra 30 minutes early at the Hokage's office." He nodded and walked away towards the Forest of Death.

OOOOO

The next day Naruto and Kurenai walked into the Hokage's office together and stood in front of him.

"So Naruto-kun I don't really have very much time this morning so I will make this quick. I assume you know why you are here?" he asked and received a nod in return. "The technique you now know is forbidden for a reason. Though not strictly a kinjutsu, it is a very dangerous technique, as it drains chakra extremely fast and can kill if misused. So tell me, why did you steal that technique from the scroll?"

"Hokage-sama, I just found it too irresistible. A solid clone would really help my fighting style, and is extremely useful anyways. And let's face it; I'm not going to be running out of chakra anytime soon. Like I told Kurenai, I consider it payment for returning the scroll and killing a traitor."

The Third seemed to think it over. "Very well Naruto-kun, we will put it down as payment for a B-rank mission. Don't let hear about you stealing anymore jutsu." He warned. "Now I believe that you have a team training to get to?"

"Hai Hokage-sama." Kurenai bowed and they both left.

OOOOO

The next two weeks consisted of basic training for team 8. Kurenai had told them that missions would have to wait as she made sure that they had a good base of knowledge to work from. They had mostly gone over chakra control, getting to know each other, and finally teamwork exercises. Their cohesion was gradually improving, but Naruto was still proving to be a bit of a problem. One moment he seemed like Itachi, never saying more than needed with hardly any emotion, but the next he was laughing at the most random things, and retelling (somewhat morbid) stories from his times in the forest of death. On a positive note, Hinata had begun to become at least somewhat comfortable around her teammates, and her stuttering had become less noticeable.

OOOOO

At a popular ninja bar, some of the jounin had met up to discuss their teams and a few others like Anko had decided to tag along also. They ordered their drinks and chatted amongst each other.

"So how are everybody's cute little genin?" Anko asked the group.

Gai decided to blast everyone with his opinion full volume, as usual. "MY GENIN ARE FLOURISHING IN THEIR SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH!" Everyone except Kakashi winced and tried to rub feeling back into their ears for a moment.

Anko did a quick translation in her head. "So you're saying they're pretty strong then?"

Gai gave her the 'nice-guy' pose, complete with teeth sparkle. "YOSH!"

Asuma lit up a cigarette. "My genin could probably already give yours a run for their money. The Ino-Shika-Cho trio has always been strong, and this year is no exception. My team may even enter the chuunin exams this year."

Kurenai's eyebrow rose slightly at his claim, and thought about her own team entering the exams that were only a few months away.

Kakashi snorted under his mask and looked up from his smut. "Pretty confident in your genin, eh? I doubt even your trio could take on just two of my genin. Though they are a bit arrogant, Sasuke and Kiba are power houses." He stated.

Kurenai rolled her eyes. "I doubt you've even taught them tree walking yet, have you?" Kakashi laughed and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Like I thought, at least I'm teaching my genin something. And they are already strong as is."

Anko smirked. "Well, well, well… How about we turn this dick measuring contest to one that involves some cash?" She received everyone's attention at that declaration. "This will be like an advanced form of Capture the Flag. Here's how it will go down:

"First off, the betting will start at 25 Yen (1 Yen = 1 Dollar, easy that way) into the pot which I will hold… and take 10 percent since this was my idea… Anyways, each of your teams will have a flag with that team's number on it, and it will be held on a small mobile flagpole. The goal is to steal the other team's flagpole and keep it until two days from now, so let's say by midnight Friday. Now once a flag is stolen the other team has to try and get it back before the deadline.

"At midnight after two days, the team with the most amount of flags wins! And as an added bonus: if you don't have your own flag, the entire team including the jounin has to sing a song. This song will be sung in the market district at _noon_, which the team holding their flag chooses!" She cackled and rubbed her hands together as the others cringed (except Gai of course…).

She regained her composure and continued. "The flags can be stolen from anyone, even from a team that stole it first. So by the end of deadline, whoever has the most amount of flags wins. Though if the teams tie, the team that still has the flag with their number on it will win. Now, anyone have any rules they want to throw out on the table?"

Kurenai looked concerned. "They just got out of the Academy, and now they will have to spend two whole days on guard protecting a flag? What about at nighttime or when they are eating?"

Anko grinned even more. "This will be a great training exercise and even preparation for the chuunin exams! Think about it, no one is ever going to give you a break when you are alone out in the field. In fact, that's when they will most likely strike. Maybe your teams will just have to become that much closer to each other, neh? And anyways, if they can't survive two days in a training ground they have no chance in the exams."

The red-eyed kunoichi then turned to see one of Kakashi's infuriating eye-smiles. "Maa maa. It's okay Anko, I guess her team isn't up to the challenge. It's okay, we understand."

Kurenai's visage hardened at the implied insult. "We will need to inform the parents that the genin will be staying until midnight on Friday."

Gai nodded, and then actually spoke in a normal tone of voice for once. "We all agree that only the genin can defend or capture the flag, since we are testing their skills and not each other's." Everyone bobbed their heads in agreement. "I would also say that the flag cannot be stored in a scroll or hidden underground. Though I think **Henge** or genjutsu should be legal." Again, everyone nodded.

"The game should be kept within training ground 15. It's large enough that all four teams will have plenty of room, but it will still keep them confined as to not disturb the rest of the village. Team 7 will start on the northern edge, Team 8 on the eastern, 9 on the southern, and 10 on the western." Kakashi said.

"Sounds reasonable. So, you guys want to put your money where your mouth is?" The senseis each eyed each other for a moment, before each of them took out their respective wallets and handed their money to Anko.

"Hey! I want in on this!" A random jounin called.

"Yeah, me too!" A chuunin agreed. There were a few other jounin and chuunin nearby that decided to put in their bets too.

"Well, the winnings will be handed out three days from now at this very bar. Now here are your flags." Then they all shifted in surprise as 4 flags complete with flagpoles, seemingly appeared out of nowhere and were handed to each of them. They each had the respective team's numbers on them and were all a bright red with the number being black. The pole was about 7 feet tall and made of a relatively lightweight PVC pipe.

They all gave her an odd look. "Were you planning this?" Kurenai asked. The purple-haired kunoichi just smiled cheekily.

"The games begin tomorrow at noon, training ground 15. Bye!" Anko smiled and ran off after finishing her drink. The others awkwardly sat for a moment before grabbing their flags and walking off the plan on how to help their team get all of the flags.

OOOOO

The next morning Naruto and his teammates were all sitting by a tree waiting when they all looked towards the poof of smoke that just appeared.

"Good morning everyone!" Kurenai called. She sounded much more awake and _loud_ than usual, which annoyed Naruto and just puzzled the other two. "We are going to be doing some quick jutsu training. Then at noon there is something fun I have planned for you guys involving some other genin teams. Now then…" Kurenai pulled out three sheets of paper and went to hand one to Naruto.

"I already know my affinities." Kurenai nodded and then handed the other two papers to Shino and Hinata.

"Channel chakra into them." She watched as Shino's card crumbled to dust and Hinata's card became soaked with water. "Shino, your chakra affinity is earth, while Hinata's is water. That will make learning certain jutsu easier than others, and it has other implications that I won't be going into right now. Shino, I will be showing you **Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall** while Hinata I will be showing you **Water Release: Starch Syrup Capturing Field**. These jutsu will help in protection and containment, which will be vital to fending off attackers and forcing enemies into corners. I know that you guys are just out of the Academy, but these jutsu will help a lot later today." She spent the next few minutes going over the chakra flow and hand signs to the two techniques, and demonstrated each to the genin. After making sure that they had the general concept down, she went over to Naruto.

"Naruto, while Hinata and Shino are working on their new jutsu, I'm going to be helping you with your genjutsu. Now I know that you can create powerful ones already, but I believe you lack subtlety." He stayed silent, showing that he didn't understand where she was going with this. "Naruto, do you know that you've been under a genjutsu for the past 10 minutes?"

He jerked his head slightly in surprise, and sent out a pulse of chakra. From his point of view, Kurenai's hand rippled slightly and then revealed to be holding a kunai in her hand. Naruto almost pulled out his own kunai, thinking she was about to attack him, but decided against it as she didn't make any moves afterwards. On the outside it only appeared that he shifted his arm slightly, so the red-eyed woman ignored it.

"As you can see, genjutsu doesn't have to be something large and devastating. Simply putting one over my hand, I was able to hide a kunai from you without you even suspecting you were under an illusion. That is one of the great powers of the illusionary arts, it can be used to change incredibly small details that most people wouldn't notice, but will greatly affect any battle." For the next few hours, Kurenai watched as her genin practiced their techniques. Soon it came time to head towards training ground 15, so she told them to follow her.

They also all took note of the flagpole held in her hands that had a red flag with the number 8 plastered on it. "I bet you are all wondering why I have this flag. Well, you guys are going to be participating in an advanced training exercise!"

"Looks more like capture the flag." Naruto commented from his place at the back of the group.

Hinata decided to speak up. "What do you m-mean Kurenai-s-sensei?"

"Naruto is partially correct, this is a game very similar to capture the flag. But here are the rules…"

Kurenai briefly explained the game and how it was going to be played (except for the betting that she had participated in) and then took note that they had finally entered the training ground, and it was already 11:45.

'So that's why Anko refused to stop hugging me until I promised to win her lots of money…' Naruto thought with a small smile at the thought of Anko hugging him. Then his brain hitched forward.

"You mean we get to… _fight_ other genin in order to get their flags?" Naruto asked. Kurenai nodded slightly perplexed, and then she got a feeling of dread in her stomach.

'Oh dear… what have I just unleashed…' she thought as she heard a dark chuckling coming from her student. A dark fog soon started to surround him. After a few seconds it obscured him completely, and then blew away to reveal empty air.

"The game will begin soon, make sure to protect the flag and try to talk some sense into Naruto when he gets back." Kurenai hugged Hinata and waved to Shino as she walked away, leaving her genin to their fate.

OOOOO

Naruto was excited. He finally got to openly attack the other genin, as long as he had the reason of 'getting their flag'. He didn't really care about getting the flags (though he didn't want to disappoint Anko), but he also refused to sing anything in front of anyone… _ever_. He would rather murder someone… or a few people, than attempt to sing.

Anyways, he was currently on the prowl for another team. He heard from Anko about Kakashi's tardiness when it came to _everything_, so he knew that heading north would be a waste of time for now.

As he was jumping along, he finally came to the river that separated the northeast corner from the southwest corner, and was happy to see that team 10 was gathered around their sensei Asuma. Choji was currently sitting next to their flag, and munching on a few chips as Asuma finished explaining the rules of the game. Shikamaru was on his back staring at the clouds, probably only partially listening to his sensei, while Ino was trying her best to understand the game (undoubtedly trying to figure out how to impress Sasuke).

Naruto made another 50 clones and had them begin to spread out throughout the forest in preparation as he began to flood the area in a thick mist. He was extremely happy to see that the youkai influx had increased his own reserves quite a bit and he was able to cover a much larger area in mist.

Asuma tensed and looked around. "Looks like the game has started already. Remember; if you lose, your training will be increased tenfold!" As he finished, the fog finally overtook their group and even though they were sitting a few feet from each other, they couldn't see one another.

Naruto chuckled as he felt the genin fidget and get up to try and find each other. He was thoroughly enjoying this 'training exercise' as Kurenai called it. 'I don't get to kill them, but this is fun all the same!' he cheered mentally.

Using subtle manipulation, he disoriented them be adding in different breezes around them, and having clones make noises that were just loud enough for only one person to hear. Soon enough, each genin was completely alone and nowhere near their teammates. Naruto quickly strode through the fog and approached Choji and the flag. He wanted to add to the effect, so he began to release KI and channeled just a touch of youkai into his throat and eyes. This made his eyes glow red behind the eye-pieces, while his voice gained a deep and demonic edge to it. He also ordered his **Mist Servants** to make sure they approached Ino head on, as she would likely scream at the sudden appearance of an enemy.

A clone appeared in front of Ino and sure enough, she let out an ear-piercing scream that cut through the muffling fog. The blonde haired girl haphazardly swung out with a kunai and hit the **Mist Servant**, making him split into two more, further freaking her out. This distracted her while a **Shadow Clone** quickly went up behind her and chopped her in the neck. Shikamaru wasn't fairing any better, as his shadows weren't strong enough in the mist, and he couldn't formulate a plan under the intense KI. Soon enough, he too was knocked out by one of Naruto's clones.

The real Naruto's body seemed to float through the mist as he approached Choji. Dispersing some of the fog around him, he revealed himself to the pudgy boy and began to chuckle.

"**You hear that? That scream was your teammate. The other isn't faring well either.**" He paused and a hidden blade slide out of its sheath, dripping in poison. He turned his hand over and seemed to be examining the blade."**It's amazing, what fear can do. It can make the strongest men quake on their knees, and the most courageous give up hope. Humans are so **_**powerless**_** against fear, and I am its avatar!**" He emphasized his declaration by focusing even more KI on the boy, causing Choji's body to shake under the pressure."**So… would you like to hand over the flag, or end up like your friends?**"

Choji began to sweat as he looked down at the flagpole held in his hands. Tentatively he put it on the ground and backed away. Naruto sheathed his blade and laughed some more as he approached and grabbed the flag. He stood back up and then surrounded himself in mist once more. A few seconds later, the fog completely dispersed as if it was never there. The entire training field looked undisturbed, except for Ino and Shikamaru lying on the ground some distance from each other, and Choji finally gave in to his shaking and fell onto his knees.

OOOOO

'I'm thinking this team deserves something more… exciting.' Naruto thought as he traveled to team 9's (Gai's team) training ground. As he crested a small hill he looked down to see the team hovering around their flag. Two looked to be discussing strategy while the third one in the green leotard was doing pushups at an incredible rate. He created another batch of clones and tossed them each a scroll filled with explosive kunai. He ordered them to attempt to surround the team, while he distracted them.

The Hyuuga seemed to have noticed him and pointed out his form to his teammates.

"Get out of here." Neji called. "You cannot even attempt to get our flag. Fate has determined that we will win this little competition." The boy didn't even feel the need to activate his bloodline against Naruto, a decision that he would regret later.

"Yeah, we're a whole year older anyways. I kind of feel bad for you rookies." The girl, Ten-ten commented.

Naruto began to toss simple senbon at them, keeping all the attention on himself. Soon enough, he stopped and spread out his arms as explosive kunai began to rain down all around them. Ten-ten used her skills with her own weaponry to knock as many kunai off course as she could, while Neji and Lee simply dodged around most of the explosions. Eventually, all three ended up back-to-back with the flag in-between them. They were running out of options fast, but the fiery balls of death simply stopped raining down on them, and they were able to relax for a brief moment.

"Ha, that will not be enough." Neji remarked between breaths.

"No, but this will." The genin all turned to see Naruto standing in between them where the flag was a moment ago. He then **Kawarimied** with a training post covered in explosive tags and then began to sprint away with the flag, laughing maniacally the whole time.

"Shi-"

BOOM!

After the smoke cleared, a crater was revealed with team 9 spread out a short ways away. They had managed to get out of the immediate blast radius, but still got hit and thrown away. As a result, they all had scrapes and burns covering parts of their clothing, and some of their skin, but still had all their appendages attached. Lee stood up and threw his fist in the air.

"I will get our flag back! And if I cannot, then I will perform 100 pushups on my fingers, and if I cannot do that, I will run 200 laps around Konoha on my hands! And if I-"

"LEE!" Ten-ten shouted. "Please quiet down and help us up." Lee apologized and then helped his other teammates up off the ground.

"We _are_ going to get our flag back." Neji declared. "No-name losers like him have no right taking it."

"Let's at least rest up for a bit, that explosion hurt." Ten-ten complained as she rubbed her scraped arm with some ointment.

OOOOO

Team 8 was surprised when Naruto appeared in front of them holding a flag two flags already.

"This is just way too much fun!" he cackled as fog began to encircle him again.

"Naruto." Shino called. "It would be logical for you to stay here. Why you ask? We have to defend the flags, and have yet to form any kind of plan."

Hinata nodded her head. "All three teams w-will be coming after us s-since we have all b-but one of the flags."

Naruto stood still for a moment, and then let the fog dissipate. Shrugging, he conceded. "Alright, I guess that makes sense. I'll leave Team 7 for now." Naruto made sure to put their flags under a genjutsu to make them invisible. After agreeing with his teammates, he began to patrol the area hoping to encounter someone.

The rest of the day proved fairly boring, as everyone was still recovering from their previous fight or preparing for ones to come. There was a brief scuffle with Sasuke's team, where they managed to snatch Gai's flag. But as soon as they got it, Naruto became angered and started to attack with his poisoned blades, forcing them to make a tactical retreat.

As they ran, they ended up running directly into team 9. Since they had been tired out from the fight with Kurenai's team, they were not prepared at all and ended up losing a flag.

So at the end of the day, Kurenai's team had their flag and Asuma's flag while Kakashi's and Gai's teams had each other's. As midnight on the first day drew near all was quiet.

OOOOO

The moon was high in the sky on the first night. They would just have to keep at least 2 flags until midnight tonight, and they would be the winners.

Naruto could barely contain his excitement and bloodlust. He wanted a good fight! He wanted to feel their blood seep through his jacket and stain his gloves. He-

"Naruto." Shino shook his friend's shoulder. "You need to rest. Your watch is over."

Naruto nodded to his friend, as he had volunteered to stay up for first watch. They knew that they couldn't just assume the other teams would stay away for the whole night, but so far that had been the case. He tried to get comfortable, but just couldn't let his mind relax, as he felt extremely vulnerable down on the ground in view of everyone. So he came up with a solution and quickly made a clone up in a nearby tree and did a quick **Kawarimi** with it. Nodding his approval at the seamless switch, he laid himself down on the branch and let himself drift off.

Soon he was abruptly awoken to the influx of memories from his clone. He quickly jumped down and assessed the situation.

Apparently, he hadn't gotten to sleep much, and it was now only just approaching morning. As it turns out, all of the teams were circling around team 8 (from some distance away) and were watching like vultures. Naruto did the first thing that came to mind, and began to fill the area with a thick mist. He knew that the mist rendered every Dojustu that he knew of useless, as Sharingan simply couldn't see through it, while the heavy chakra infusion left Byakugan useless as well. As far as he knew, Sasuke hadn't unlocked his Sharingan yet, but better safe than sorry.

The final day was upon them, and it looked like it would be truly exhilarating.

As he made his way towards his teammates, Naruto almost couldn't contain himself he was so excited, but soon the edges of his vision began to darken, and his head filled with a new pain.

'That can't be good. Maybe I'm more tired than I thought…'

OOOOO

**My creation! Chapter 5, it is alive! People are… reading it! Woot! :D**

**There you have it, complete with cliffhanger and all! Thank you so much for reading it. Also, thanks once again to my Beta readers! They have helped a lot.**

**Please REVIEW for me. The simple review is always very much appreciated, but you can help improve the story if you tell me **_**why **_**you did or did not like this chapter.**

**BYE!**


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